
Glass DS 710 
Book M ^ 



COURT LIFE IN CHINA 



ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND'S 

THREE BOOKS THAT 
"LINK EAST AND WEST" 



Court Life in China 

The Capital, Its Officials and 
People. 

Illustrated, cloth, net $1.50 

The Chinese Boy and 
Girl 

Fully Illustrated, Quarto boards, 
decorated, net $1.00 

Chinese Mother Goose 
Rhymes 

Illustrated, Quarto boards, net $1.00 





/ 



The Empress Dowager as the 
Goddess of Mercy. 

In this painting the Empress Dowager is repre- 
sented as the " Goddess of Mercy," an attitude 
which she delighted to assume, with her rosary in 
her hand, standing upon a lotus petal and floating 
upon the waves of the sea. It was painted for the 
author by one of the leading portrait painters of 
Peking. (See page go.) 



Court Life in China 



THE CAPITAL 
ITS OFFICIALS 
AND PEOPLE 



By 
ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND 

Professor in the Peking University 



ILLUSTRATED 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1909, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 






New York: 1*58 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue 
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 



PREFACE 

UNTIL within the past ten years a study of 
Chinese court life would have been an 
impossibility. The Emperor, the Em- 
press Dowager, and the court ladies were shut 
up within the Forbidden City, away from a world 
they were anxious to see, and which was equally 
anxious to see them. Then the Emperor insti- 
tuted reform, the Empress Dowager came out 
from behind the screen, and the court entered 
into social relations with Europeans. 

For twenty years and more Mrs. Headland has 
been physician to the family of the Empress Dow- 
ager's mother, the Empress' sister, and many of 
the princesses and high official ladies in Peking. 
She has visited them in a social as well as a profes- 
sional way, has taken with her her friends, to 
whom the princesses have shown many favours, 
and they have themselves been constant callers 
at our home. It is to my wife, therefore, that I 
am indebted for much of the information con- 
tained in this book. 

There are many who have thought that the 
Empress Dowager has been misrepresented. 
The world has based its judgment of her charac- 
ter upon her greatest mistake, her participation 
in the Boxer movement, which seems unjust, and 



2 Preface 

has closed its eyes to the tremendous reforms 
which only her mind could conceive and her 
hand carry out. The great Chinese officials to a 
man recognized in her a mistress of every situa- 
tion ; the foreigners who have come into most 
intimate contact with her, voice her praise ; while 
her hostile critics are confined for the most part 
to those who have never known her. It was for 
this reason that a more thorough study of her 
life was undertaken. 

It has also been thought that the Emperor has 
been misunderstood, being overestimated by 
some, and underestimated by others, and this 
because of his peculiar type of mind and charac- 
ter. That he was unusual, no one will deny ; 
that he was the originator of many of China's 
greatest reform measures, is equally true ; but 
that he lacked the power to execute what he con- 
ceived, and the ability to select great statesmen 
to assist him, seems to have been his chief short- 
coming. ' 

To my wife for her help in the preparation of 
this volume, and to my father-in-law, Mr. Will- 
iam Sinclair, M. A., for his suggestions, I am 
under many obligations. 

I. T. H. 



CONTENTS 

I. The Empress Dowager — Her Early 

Life 7 

II. The Empress Dowager — Her Years 

of Training 17 

III. The Empress Dowager — As a Ruler 33 

IV. The Empress Dowager — As a Re- 

actionist 51 

V. The Empress Dowager — As a 

Reformer 67 

VI. The Empress Dowager — As an 

Artist 8$ 

VII. The Empress Dowager — As a 

Woman 95 

VIII. Kuang Hsu" — His Self-Development hi 



IX. Kuang Hsu — As Emperor and Re 

former .... 

X. Kuang Hsu — As a Prisoner . 
XL Prince Chun — The Regent 

XII. The Home of the Court — The For 

bidden City .... 

XIII. The Ladies of the Court 

XIV. The Princesses — Their Schools 

XV. The Chinese Ladies of Rank 

3 



129 
149 
169 

185 
199 
211 

227 



4 Contents 

XVI. The Social Life of the Chinese 

Woman 245 

XVII. The Chinese Ladies — Their Ills . 269 

XVIII. The Funeral Ceremonies of a Dow- 

ager Princess .... 287 

XIX. Chinese Princes and Officials . 303 

XX. Peking — The City of the Court . 327 

XXI. The Death of Kuang Hsu and the 

Empress Dowager . . .341 

XXII. The Court and the New Education 353 
Index 367 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Dowager Empress as Goddess of Mercy . 
(Painted by a Chinese artist) 

Empress Dowager in Pearl Fringed Robes 

Cock and Beetle ..... 

The Empress Dowager as Goddess of Mercy 



Facing page 
Title 



36 

87 
90 



Sprigs of Peach Bloom Painted by the Empress Dow> 
ager . .... 

Portrait of the Empress Dowager by Miss Karl 
About to Leave Peking for St. Louis Exhibi 
tion .... 



to the St. Louis 



Manchu Princesses at a Luncheon at the American 
Legation 

Prince ChUn and His Delegation 

Prince Pu Lun, Imperial Delegate 
Exposition 

Empress Dowager's Dining-Room 

A Manchu Princess 

Prince Su and His Camel Cart 

Chinese Ladies in Winter Garments 

Mrs. Headland and Friends Visiting at the Home of 
Duke Jung 

The Empress Dowager, Placing a Flower in Her 
Hair .... 



92 

104 

173 

175 

182 

193 
208 
211 
232 

255 
274 



6 Illustrations 

Hatamen Street Before Macadamizing . . 330 

Hatamen Street as It is To-Day . . . .340 

Prince Chun with the Emperor Pu I on His Left 346 
Yang Shih-Hsiang . . . . . 362 

Yuan Shih-kai ....... 362 



I 

The Empress Dowager — Her Early Life 



All the period since 1861 should be rightly recorded as 
the reign of Tze Hsi An, a more eventful period than all 
the two hundred and forty-four reigns that had preceded 
her three usurpations. It began after a conquering army 
had made terms of peace in her capital, and with the 
Tai-ping rebellion in full swing of success. . . 

Those few who have looked upon the countenance of the 
Dowager describe her as a tall, erect, fine-looking woman 
of distinguished and imperious bearing, with pronounced 
Tartar features, the eye of an eagle, and the voice of de- 
termined authority and absolute command. 
— Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore in " China, The Long- Lived 
Empire." 



Court Life in China 



THE EMPRESS DOWAGER— HER EARLY LIFE 

ONE day when one of the princesses was 
calling at our home in Peking, I in- 
quired of her where the Empress Dow- 
ager was born. She gazed at me for a moment 
with a queer expression wreathing her features, 
as she finally said with just the faintest shadow 
of a smile : " We never talk about the early his- 
tory of Her Majesty." I smiled in return and 
continued : " I have been told that she was born 
in a small house, in a narrow street inside of the 
east gate of the Tartar city — the gate blown up 
by the Japanese when they entered Peking in 
1900." The princess nodded. " I have also 
heard that her father's name was Chao, and that 
he was a small military official (she nodded again) 
who was afterwards beheaded for some neglect 
of duty." To this the visitor also nodded assent. 
A few days later several well-educated young 
Chinese ladies, daughters of one of the most dis- 
tinguished scholars in Peking, were calling on 

9 



io Court Life in China 

my wife, and again I pursued my inquiries. " Do 
you know anything about the early life of the 
Empress Dowager? " I asked of the eldest. She 
hesitated a moment, with that same blank ex- 
pression I had seen on the face of the princess, 
and then answered very deliberately, — " Yes, 
everybody knows, but nobody talks about it." 
And this is, no doubt, the reason why the early 
life of the greatest woman of the Mongol race, 
and, as some who knew her best think, the most 
remarkable woman of the nineteenth century, has 
ever been shrouded in mystery. Whether the 
Empress desired thus to efface all knowledge of 
her childhood by refusing to allow it to be talked 
about, I do not know, but I said to myself : 
" What everybody knows, I can know," and I pro- 
ceeded to find out. 

I discovered that she was one of a family of 
several brothers and sisters and born about 1834 ; 
that the financial condition of her parents was such 
that when a child she had to help in caring for 
the younger children, carrying them on her back, 
as girls do in China, and amusing them with such 
simple toys as are hawked about the streets or sold 
in the shops for a cash or two apiece ; that she and 
her brothers and little sisters amused themselves 
with such games as blind man's buff, prisoner's 
base, kicking marbles and flying kites in company 
with the other children of their neighbourhood. 
During these early years she was as fond of the 



The Empress Dowager — Her Early Life 1 1 

puppet plays, trained mice shows, bear shows, and 
" Punch and Judy " as she was in later years of 
the theatrical performances with which she enter- 
tained her visitors at the palace. She was com- 
pelled to run errands for her mother, going to 
the shops, as occasion required, for the daily sup- 
ply of oils, onions, garlic, and other vegetables 
that constituted the larger portion of their food. 
I found out also that there is not the slightest 
foundation for the story that in her childhood she 
was sold as a slave and taken to the south of 
China. 

The outdoor life she led, the games she played, 
and the work she was forced to do in the absence 
of household servants, gave to the little girl a 
well-developed body, a strong constitution and a 
fund of experience and information which can be 
obtained in no other way. She was one of the 
great middle class. She knew the troubles and 
trials of the poor. She had felt the pangs of 
hunger. She could sympathize with the millions 
of ambitious girls struggling to be freed from the 
trammels of ignorance and the age-old customs 
of the past — a combat which was the more real 
because it must be carried on in silence. And 
who can say that it was not the struggles and 
privations of her own childhood which led to the 
wish in her last years that " the girls of my em- 
pire may be educated " ? 

When little Miss Chao had reached the age of 



12 Court Life in China 

fourteen or fifteen she was taken by her parents 
to an office in the northern part of the imperial 
city of Peking where her name, age, personal 
appearance, and estimated degree of intelligence 
and potential ability were registered, as is done in 
the case of all the daughters of the Manchu peo- 
ple. The reason for this singular proceeding is 
that when the time comes for the selection of a 
wife or a concubine for the Emperor, or the choos- 
ing of serving girls for the palace, those in charge 
of these matters will know where they can be ob- 
tained. 

This custom is not considered an unalloyed 
blessing by the Manchu people, and many of 
them would gladly avoid registering their daugh- 
ters if only they dared. But the rule is compul- 
sory, and every one belonging to the eight Ban- 
ners or companies into which the Manchus are 
divided must have their daughters registered. 
Their aversion to this custom is well illustrated 
in the following incident : 

In one of the girls' schools in Peking there was 
a beautiful child, the daughter of a Manchu 
woman whose husband was dead. One day this 
widow came to the principal of the school and 
said : "A summons has come from the court for 
the girls of our clan to appear before the officials 
that a certain number may be chosen and sent 
into the palace as serving girls." " When is she 
to appear ? " inquired the teacher. " On the six- 



The Empress Dowager — Her Early Life 13 

teenth," answered the mother. " I suppose you 
are anxious that she should be one of the fortu- 
nate ones," said the teacher, " though I should be 
sorry to lose her from the school." " On the con- 
trary," said the mother, " I should be distressed 
if she were chosen, and have come to consult 
with you as to whether we might not hire a 
substitute." The teacher expressed surprise and 
asked her why. " When our daughters are taken 
into the palace," answered the mother, " they are 
dead to us until they are twenty-five, when they 
are allowed to return home. If they are incom- 
petent or dull they are often severely punished. 
They may contract disease and die, and their 
death is not even announced to us ; while if they 
prove themselves efficient and win the approval 
of the authorities they are retained in the palace 
and we may never see them or hear from them 
again." 

At first the teacher was inclined to favour the 
hiring of a substitute, but on further considera- 
tion concluded that it would be contrary to the 
law, and advised that the girl be allowed to go. 
The mother, however, was so anxious to prevent 
her being chosen that she sent her with uncombed 
hair, soiled clothes and a dirty face, that she 
might appear as unattractive as possible. 

The prospects for a concubine are even less 
promising than for a serving maid, as when she 
once enters the palace she has little if any hope 



14 Court Life in China 

of ever leaving it. She is neither mistress nor 
servant, wife nor slave, she is but one of a hun- 
dred buds in a garden of roses which have little 
if any prospect of ever blooming or being plucked 
for the court bouquet. When, therefore, the gates 
of the Forbidden City close behind the young 
girls who are taken in as concubines of an em- 
peror they shut out an attractive, busy, beautiful 
world, filled with men and women, boys and girls, 
homes and children, green fields and rich harvests, 
and confine them within the narrow limits of one 
square mile of brick-paved earth, surrounded by 
a wall twenty-five feet high and thirty feet thick, 
in which there is but one solitary man who is 
neither father, brother, husband nor friend to 
them, and whom they may never even see. 

When therefore the time came for the selection 
of concubines for the Emperor Hsien Feng, and 
our little Miss Chao was taken into the palace, 
her parents, like many others, had every reason 
to consider it a piece of ill-fortune which had 
visited their home. The future was veiled from 
them. The Forbidden City, surrounded by its 
great crenelated wall, may have seemed more like 
a prison than like a palace. True, they had other 
children, and she was " only a girl, but even girls 
are a small blessing," as they tell us in their prov- 
erbs. She had grown old enough to be use- 
ful in the home, and they no doubt had cherished 
plans of betrothing her to the son of some mer- 



The Empress Dowager — Her Early Life 15 

chant or official who would add wealth or honour 
to their family. Neither father nor mother, 
brother nor sister, could have conceived of the 
potential power, honour and even glory, that were 
wrapped up in that girl, and that were finally to 
come to them as a family, as well as to many of 
them as individuals. Their wildest dreams at 
that time could not have pictured themselves 
dukes and princesses, with their daughters as 
empresses, duchesses, or ladies-in-waiting in the 
palace. But such it proved to be. 



II 



The Empress Dowager — Her Years of 
Training 



The kindness of the Empress is as boundless as the sea. 

Her person too is holy, she is like a deity. 

With boldness, from seclusion, she ascends the Dragon 

Throne, 
And saves her suffering country from a fate we dare not 

own. 

— " Yuan Fan," Translated by I. T. H. 



II 

THE EMPRESS DOWAGER— HER YEARS OF 
TRAINING 

THE year our little Miss Chao entered the 
palace was a memorable one in the 
history of China. The Tai-ping rebel- 
lion, which had begun in the south some three 
years earlier (1850), had established its capital at 
Nanking, on the Yangtse River, and had sent its 
"long-haired" rebels north on an expedition of 
conquest, the ultimate aim of which was Peking. 
By the end of the year 1853 they had arrived 
within one hundred miles of the capital, conquer- 
ing everything before them, and leaving devas- 
tation and destruction in their wake. 

Their success had been extraordinary. Start- 
ing in the southwest with an army of ten thou- 
sand men they had eighty thousand when they 
arrived before the walls of Nanking. They were 
an undisciplined horde, without commissariat, 
without drilled military leaders, but with such reck- 
less daring and bravery that the imperial troops 
were paralyzed with fear and never dared to meet 
them in the open field. Thousands of common 
thieves and robbers flocked to their standards 
with every new conquest, impelled by no higher 

*9 



20 Court Life in China 

motive than that of pillage and gain. Rumours 
became rife in every village and hamlet, and as 
they neared the capital the wildest tales were told 
in every nook and corner of the city, from the 
palace of the young Emperor in the Forbidden 
City to the mat shed of the meanest beggar be- 
neath the city wall. 

My wife says : " I remember just after going 
to China, sitting one evening on a kang, or brick 
bed, with Yin-ma, an old nurse, our only light 
being a wick floating in a dish of oil. Yin-ma 
was about the age of the Empress Dowager, but, 
unlike Her Majesty, her locks were snow-white. 
When I entered the dimly lighted room she was 
sitting in the midst of a group of women and 
girls — patients in the hospital — who listened with 
bated breath as she told them of the horrors of 
the Tai-ping rebellion. 

11 ' Why ! ' said the old nurse, ' all that the rebels 
had to do on their way to Peking, was to cut out 
as many paper soldiers as they wanted, put them 
in boxes, and breathe upon them when they met 
the imperial troops, and they were transformed 
into such fierce warriors that no one was able to 
withstand them. Then when the battle was over 
and they had come off victors they only needed 
to breathe upon them again, when they were 
changed into paper images and packed in their 
boxes, requiring neither food nor clothing. In- 
deed the spirits of the rebels were everywhere, 



Her Years of Training 21 

and no matter who cut out paper troops they 
could change them into real soldiers.' 

" ' But, Yin-ma, you do not believe those 
superstitions, do you ? ' 

" ' These are not superstitions, doctor, these are 
facts, which everybody believed in those days, 
and it was not safe for a woman to be seen with 
scissors and paper, lest her neighbours report that 
she was cutting out troops for the rebels. The 
country was filled with all kinds of rumours, and 
every one had to be very careful of all their con- 
duct, and of everything they said, lest they be 
arrested for sympathizing with the enemy.' 

" ' But, Yin-ma, did you ever see any of these 
paper images transformed into soldiers ? ' 

" ' No, I never did myself, but there was an 
old woman lived near our place, who was said to 
be in sympathy with the rebels. One night my 
father saw soldiers going into her house and 
when he had followed them he could find noth- 
ing but paper images. You may not have any- 
thing of this kind happen in America, but very 
many people saw them in those terrible days of 
pillage and bloodshed here.' " 

Such stories are common in all parts of China 
during every period of rebellion, war, riot of dis- 
turbance of any kind. The people go about 
with fear on their faces, and horror in their 
voices, telling each other in undertones of what 
some one, somewhere, is said to have seen or 



22 Court Life in China' 

heard. Nor are these superstitions confined to 
the common people. Many of the better classes 
believe them and are filled with fear. 

As the Tai-ping rebellion broke out when 
Miss Chao was about fifteen or sixteen years of 
age, she would hear these stories for two or three 
years before she entered the palace. After she had 
been taken into the Forbidden City she would 
continue to hear them, brought in by the 
eunuchs and circulated not only among all the 
women of the palace, but among their own asso- 
ciates as well, and here they would take on a 
more mysterious and alarming aspect to these 
people shut away from the world, as ghost stories 
become more terrifying when told in the dim 
twilight. May this not account in some measure 
for the attitude assumed by the Empress Dowa- 
ger towards the Boxer superstitions of 1900, and 
their pretentions to be able at will to call to their 
aid legions of spirit-soldiers, while at the same 
time they were themselves invulnerable to the 
bullets of their enemies ? 

It was when Miss Chao was ten years old that 
the conflict known as the Opium War was 
brought to an end. It has been said that when 
the Emperor was asked to sanction the importa- 
tion of opium, he answered, " I will never legal- 
ize a traffic that will be an injury to my people," 
but whether this be true or not, it is admitted by 
all that the central government was strongly op- 



Her Years of Training 23 

posed to the sale and use of the drug within its 
domains. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that 
the first time the Chinese came into collision 
with European governments was over a matter 
of this kind, and it is to the credit of the Chinese 
commissioner when the twenty thousand chests 
of opium, over which the dispute arose, were 
handed over to him, he mixed it with quicklime 
in huge vats that it might be utterly destroyed 
rather than be an injury to his people. They 
may have exhibited an ignorance of international 
law, they may have manifested an unwise con- 
tempt for the foreigner, but it remains a fact of 
history that they were ready to suffer great finan- 
cial loss rather than get revenue from the ruin of 
their subjects, and that England went to war for 
the purpose of securing indemnity for the opium 
destroyed. 

The common name for opium among the 
Chinese is yang yen — foreign tobacco, and my 
wife says : " When calling at the Chinese homes, 
I have frequently been offered the opium-pipe, and 
when I refused it the ladies expressed surprise, 
saying that they were under the impression that 
all foreigners used it." 

What now were the results of the Opium War 
as viewed from the standpoint of the Chinese 
people, and what impression would it make upon 
them as a whole ? Great Britain demanded an 
indemnity of $21,000,000, the cession to them of 



24 Court Life in China 

Hongkong, an island on the southern coast, 
and the opening of five ports to British trade. 
China lost her standing as suzerain among the 
peoples of the Orient and got her first glimpse of 
the White Peril from the West. 

Although the Empress Dowager was but a 
child of ten at this time she would receive her 
first impression of the foreigner, which was that 
he was a pirate who had come to carry away 
their wealth, to filch from them their land, and 
to overrun their country. He became a veritable 
bugaboo to men, women and children alike, and 
this impression was crystallized in the expression 
yang kuei> "foreign devil," which is the only 
term among a large proportion of the Chinese 
by which the foreigner is known. One day when 
walking on the street in Peking I met a woman 
with a child of two years in her arms, and as I 
passed them, the child patted its mother on the 
cheek and said in an undertone, — " The foreign 
devil's coming," which led the frightened mother 
to cover its eyes with her hand that it might not 
be injured by the sight. 

On one occasion a friend was travelling 
through the country when a Chinese gentleman, 
dressed in silk and wearing an official hat, called 
on him at the inn where he was stopping and 
with a profound bow addressed him as " Old Mr. 
Foreign Devil." 

My wife says that : " Not infrequently when I 



Her Years of Training 25 

have been called for the first time to the homes 
of the better classes I have seen the children run 
into the house from the outer court exclaiming, 
— ' The devil doctor's coming.' Indeed, I have 
heard the women use this term in speaking of 
me to my assistant until I objected, when they 
asked with surprise, — ' Doesn't she like to be 
called foreign devil?'" And so the Empress 
Dowager's first impression of the foreigner would 
be that of a devil. 

Colonel Denby tells us that "A Frenchman 
and his wife were carried off from Tonquin by 
bandits who took refuge in China. The Chinese 
government was asked to rescue these prisoners 
and restore them to liberty. China sent a 
brigade of troops, who pursued the bandits to 
their den and recovered the prisoners. The 
French government thanked the Chinese gov- 
ernment for its assistance, and bestowed the 
decoration of the Legion of Honour on the 
brigade commander, and then shortly afterwards 
demanded the payment of an enormous in- 
demnity for the outrage on the ground that 
China had delayed to effect the rescue. The 
Chinese were aghast, but they paid the money." 

This incident does not stand alone, but is one 
of a number of similar experiences which the 
Chinese government had in her relation with the 
powers of Europe, and which have been reported 
by such writers as Holcomb, Beresford, Gorst 



26 Court Life in China 

Colquhoun and others in trying to account for 
the feelings the Chinese have towards us, all of 
which was embodied in the years of training of 
our little concubine. 

It should be remembered that many concubines 
are selected whom the Emperor never takes the 
trouble to see. After being taken in, their 
temper and disposition are carefully noted, 
their faithfulness in the duties assigned them, 
their diligence in the performance of their 
tasks, their kindness to their inferiors, their 
treatment of their equals, and their politeness 
and obedience to their superiors, and upon all 
these things, with many others, as we shall see, 
their promotion will finally depend. 

When Miss Chao entered the palace, like 
most girls of her class or station in life, she was 
uneducated. She may have studied the small 
" Classic for Girls " in which she learned : 

" You should rise from bed as early in the morning as the 
sun, 
Nor retire at evening's closing till your work is wholly 
done." 

Or, further, she may have been told, 

" When the wheel of life's at fifteen, 
Or when twenty years have passed, 
As a girl with home and kindred these will surely be 
your last ; 



Her Years of Training 27 

While expert in all employments that compose a 

woman's life, 
You should study as a daughter all the duties of a 

wife." 

Or she may have read the " Filial Piety Classic 
for Girls " in which she learned the importance 
of the attitude she assumed towards those who 
were in authority over her, but certain it is she 
was not educated. 

She had, however, what was better than edu- 
cation — a disposition to learn. And so when she 
had the good fortune, — or shall we say misfor- 
tune, — for as we have seen it is variously re- 
garded by Chinese parents — to be taken into the 
palace, she found there educated eunuchs who 
were set aside as teachers of the imperial harem. 
She was bright, attractive, and I think I may add 
without fear of contradiction, very ambitious, and 
this in no bad sense. She devoted herself to her 
studies with such energy and diligence as not 
only to attract the attention of the teacher, but to 
make herself a fair scholar, a good penman, and 
an exceptional painter, and it was not long until, 
from among all the concubines, she had gained 
the attention and won the admiration — and shall 
we say affection — not only of the Empress, but 
of the Emperor himself, and she was selected as 
the first concubine or kuei fei, and from that 
time until the death of the Empress the two 
women were the staunchest of friends. 



28 Court Life in China 

The new favourite had been a healthy and vig- 
orous girl, with plenty of outdoor life in child- 
hood, and it was not long before she became the 
happy mother of Hsien Feng's only son. She 
was thenceforward known as the Empress-mother. 
In a short time she was raised to the position of 
wife, and given the title of Western Empress, 
as the other was known as the Eastern, from 
which time the two women were equal in rank, 
and, in the eyes of the world, equal in power. 

The first Empress was a pampered daughter of 
wealth, neither vigorous of body nor strong of 
mind, caring nothing for political power if only 
she might have ease and comfort, and there is 
nothing that exhibits the Empress Dowager's real 
greatness more convincingly tfyan the fact that 
she was able to live for thirty years the more for- 
tunate mother of her country's ruler, and, in 
power, the mistress of her superior, without 
arousing the latter's envy, jealousy, anger, or 
enmity. Let any woman who reads this imag- 
ine, if she can, herself placed in the position of 
either of these ladies without being inclined to 
despise the less fortunate, ease-loving Empress if 
she be the dowager, or hating the more power- 
ful dowager if she be the Empress. Such a state 
of affairs as these two women lived in for more 
than a quarter of a century is almost if not en- 
tirely unique in history. 

Perhaps the incident which made most im- 



Her Years of Training 29 

pression upon her was one which happened in 
i860 and is recorded in history as the Arrow 
War. A few years before a number of Chinese, 
who owned a boat called the Arrow, had it reg- 
istered in Hongkong and hence were allowed to 
sail under the British flag. There is no question 
I think but that these Chinese were committing 
acts of piracy, and as this was one of the causes 
of disturbance on that southern coast for cen- 
turies past, the viceroy decided to rid the country 
of this pest. Nine days after the time for which 
the boat had been registered, but while it con- 
tinued unlawfully to float the British colours, the 
viceroy seized the boat, imprisoned all her crew, 
and dragged down the British flag. This was an 
insult which Great Britain could not or would 
not brook and so the viceroy was ordered to re- 
lease the prisoners, all of whom were Chinese 
subjects, on penalty of being blown up in his 
own yamen if he refused. 

Frightened at the threat, and remembering the 
result of the former war, the viceroy sent the 
prisoners to the consulate in chains without 
proper apologies for his insult to the flag. This 
angered the consul and he returned them to the 
viceroy, who promptly cut off their heads with- 
out so much as the semblance of a trial, and 
Britain, anxious, as she was, to have every door 
of the Chinese empire opened to foreign trade, 
found in this another pretext for war. We do 



30 Court Life in China 

not pretend to argue that this was not the best 
thing for China and for the world, but it can only 
be considered so from the bitter medicine, and 
corporal punishment point of view, neither of 
which are agreeable to either the patient or the 
pupil. 

Britain went to war. The viceroy was taken 
a prisoner to India, whence he never returned. 
As though ashamed to enter upon a second un- 
provoked and unjust war alone, she invited 
France, Russia, and America to join her. France 
was quite ready to do so in the hope of strength- 
ening her position in Indo-China, and with noth- 
ing more than the murder of a missionary in 
Kuangsi as a pretext she put a body of troops in 
the field large enough to enable her to check- 
mate England, or humiliate China as the ex- 
igencies of the occasion, and her own interests, 
might demand. America and Russia having no 
cause for war, no wrongs to redress, and no 
desire for territory, refused to join her in sending 
troops, but gave her such sympathy and support 
as would enable her to bring about a more satis- 
factory arrangement of China's foreign relations 
— that is more satisfactory to themselves regard- 
less of the wishes, though not perhaps the in- 
terests, of China. 

We know how the British and French marched 
upon Peking in i860; how the summer palace 
was left a heap of ruins as a punishment for the 



Her Years of Training 31 

murder of a company of men under a flag of 
truce ; and how the Emperor Hsien Feng, with 
his wife, and the mother of his only son, our 
Empress Dowager, were compelled to flee for the 
first time before a foreign invader. Their refuge 
was Jehol, a fortified town, in a wild and rugged 
mountain pass, on the borders of China and 
Tartary, a hundred miles northeast of Peking. 
At this place the Emperor died, whether of dis- 
ease, chagrin, or of a broken heart — or of all 
combined, it is impossible to say, and the Em- 
press-mother was left an exile and a widow, with 
the capital and the throne for the first time at 
the mercy of the Western barbarian. 

This was the beginning of two important 
phases of the Empress Dowager's life — her 
affliction and her power, and her greatness is 
exhibited as well by the way in which she bore 
the one as by the way in which she wielded the 
other. In most cases a woman would have been 
so overcome by sorrow at the loss of her husband, 
as to have forgotten the affairs of state, or to have 
placed them for the time in the hands of others. 
Not so with this great woman. Prince Kung, 
the brother of Hsien Feng, had been left in 
Peking to arrange a treaty with the Europeans, 
which he succeeded in doing to the satisfaction 
of both the Chinese and the foreigners. 

On the death of the Emperor, a regency was 
organized by two of the princes, which did not 



02 Court Life in China 

include Prince Kung, and disregarded both of 
the dowagers, and it seemed as though Prince 
Kung was doomed. His father-in-law, however, 
the old statesman who had signed the treaties, 
urged him to be the first to get the ear of the 
two women on their return to the capital. This 
he did, and as it seemed evident that the regency 
and the council had been organized for the ex- 
press purpose of tyrannizing over the Empresses 
and the child, they were at once arrested, the 
leader beheaded, and the others condemned to 
exile or to suicide. The child had been placed 
upon the throne as " good-luck," but now a new 
regency was formed, consisting of the two 
dowagers, with Prince Kung as joint regent, and 
the title of the reign was changed to Tung Chih 
or "joint government." Thus ended the Em- 
press Dowager's years of training. 



Ill 

The Empress Dowager — As a Ruler 



That a Manchu woman who had had such narrow op- 
portunities of obtaining a knowledge of things as they really 
are, in distinction from the tissue of shams which consti- 
tute the warp and the woof of an Oriental Palace, should 
have been able to hold her own in every situation, and 
never be crushed by the opposing forces about her, is a 
phenomenon in itself only to be explained by due recogni- 
tion of the influence of individual qualities in a ruler even 
in the semi absolutism of China. 

— Arthur H. Smith in " China in Convulsion" 



Ill 

THE EMPRESS DOWAGER— AS A RULER 

IN considering the policy pursued by the 
Empress-mother after her accession to the 
regency, one cannot but feel that she was 
fully aware of the fact that she had been the wife 
of an emperor, and was the mother of the heir, 
of a decaying house. Of the 218 years that her 
dynasty had been in power, 120 had been occu- 
pied by the reigns of two emperors, and only 
seven monarchs had sat upon the throne, a 
smaller number than ever ruled during the same 
period in all Chinese history. These two Em- 
perors, Kang Hsi and Chien Lung, the second 
and fourth, had each reigned for sixty years, the 
most brilliant period of the " Great Pure Dy- 
nasty," unless we except the last six years of the 
Empress Dowager's regency. The other ninety- 
eight years saw five rulers rise and pass away, 
each one becoming weaker than his predecessor 
both in character and in physique, until with the 
death of her son, Tung Chih, the dynasty was 
left without a direct heir. 

The decay of the imperial house, the encroach- 
ments of the foreigner, and the opposition of the 
native Chinese to the rule of the Manchus, awoke 

35 



36 Court Life in China 

the Empress Dowager to a realization of the fact 
that a stronger hand than that of her husband 
must be at the helm if the dynasty of her people 
were to be preserved. "It may be said with 
emphasis," says Colonel Denby, who was for 
thirteen years minister to China, " that the Em- 
press Dowager has been the first of her race to 
apprehend the problem of the relation of China 
to the outer world, and to make use of this rela- 
tion to strengthen her dynasty and to promote 
material progress." She was fortunate in having 
Prince Kung associated with her in the regency, 
a man tall, handsome and dignified, and the 
greatest statesman that has come from the royal 
house since the time of Chien Lung. 

Here appears one of the chief characteristics 
of the Empress Dowager as a ruler — her ability 
to choose the greatest statesmen, the wisest ad- 
visers, the safest leaders, and the best guides, 
from the great mass of Chinese officials, whether 
progressive or conservative. Prince Kung was 
for forty years the leading figure of the Chinese 
capital outside of the Forbidden City. He ap- 
peared first, at the age of twenty-six, as a mem- 
ber of the commission that tried the minister who 
failed to make good his promise to induce Lord 
Elgin and his men-of-war to withdraw from Tien- 
tsin in 1858. The following year he was made a 
member of the Colonial Board that controlled the 
affairs of the " outer Barbarians," and a year later 




EMPRESS DOWAGER IN PEARL FRINGED 
ROYAL ROBES. 



The Empress Dowager — As a Ruler 37 

was left in Peking, when the court fled, to ar- 
range a treaty of peace with the victorious Brit- 
ish and French after they had taken the capital. 
" In these trying circumstances," says Professor 
Giles, "the tact and resource of Prince Kung 
won the admiration of his opponents," and when 
the Foreign Office was formed in 1861, it be- 
gan with the Prince as its first president, a posi- 
tion which he continued to hold for many years. 
It was he, as we have seen, who succeeded in 
outwitting and overthrowing the self-constituted 
regency on the death of his brother Hsien Feng, 
and, with the Empress Dowager, seated her in- 
fant son upon the throne, with the two Empresses 
and himself as joint regents. This condition con- 
tinued for some years, with the senior Empress 
exercising no authority, and Prince Kung con- 
tinually growing in power. The arrangement 
seemed satisfactory to all but one — the Empress- 
mother. To her it appeared as though he were 
fast becoming the government, and she and the 
Empress were as rapidly receding into the back- 
ground, while in reality the design had been to 
make him " joint regent " with them. In all the 
receptions of the officials by the court, Prince 
Kung alone could see them face to face, while the 
ladies were compelled to remain behind a screen, 
listening to the deliberations but without taking 
any part therein, other than by such suggestions 
as they might make. 



38 Court Life in China 

Being the visible head of the government, and 
the only avenue to positions of preferment, he 
would naturally be flattered by the Chinese offi- 
cials. This led him to assume an air of impor- 
tance which consciously or unconsciously he car- 
ried into the presence of their Majesties, and one 
morning he awoke to find himself stripped of all 
his rank and power, and confined and guarded a 
prisoner in his palace, by a joint decree from the 
two Empresses accusing him of " lack of respect 
for their Majesties." The deposed Prince at once 
begged their forgiveness, whereupon all his hon- 
ours were restored with their accompanying 
dignities, but none of his former power as joint 
regent, and thus the first obstacle to her reestab- 
lishment of the dynasty was eliminated by the 
Empress-mother. To show Prince Kung, how- 
ever, that they bore him no ill will, the Em- 
presses adopted his daughter as their own, rais- 
ing her to the rank of an imperial princess, and 
though the Prince has long since passed away 
his daughter still lives, and next to the Empress 
Dowager has been the leading figure in court 
circles during the past ten years' association with 
the foreigners. 

During her son's minority, after the dismissal 
of Prince Kung as joint regent, the Empress- 
mother year by year took a more active part in 
the affairs of state, while the Empress as grad- 
ually sank into the background. She was far 



The Empress Dowager — As a Ruler 39 

sighted. Having but one son, and knowing the 
uncertainty of life, she originated a plan to secure 
the succession to her family. To this end she 
arranged for the marriage of her younger sister 
to her husband's younger brother commonly 
known as the Seventh Prince, in the hope that from 
this union there might come a son who would 
be a worthy occupant of the dragon throne in case 
her own son died without issue. She felt that 
the country needed a great central figure capable 
of inspiring confidence and banishing uncertainty, 
a strong, well-balanced, broad-minded, self-abne^ 
gating chief executive, and she proposed to 
furnish one. Whether she would succeed or not 
must be left to the future to reveal, but the one 
great task set by destiny for her to accomplish 
was to prepare the mind of a worthy successor to 
meet openly and intelligently the problems which 
had been too vast, too new and too complicated 
for her predecessors, if not for herself, to solve. 

When her son was seventeen years old he was 
married to Alute, a young Manchu lady of one of 
the best families in Peking and was nominally 
given the reins of power, though as a matter of 
fact the supreme control of affairs was still in the 
hands of his more powerful mother. The minis- 
ters of the European countries, England, France, 
Germany, Russia and the United States, now 
resident at Peking, thought this a good time for 
bringing up the matter of an audience with the 



40 Court Life in China 

new ruler, and after a long discussion with Prince 
Kung and the Empress-mother, the matter was 
arranged without the ceremony of prostration 
which all previous rulers had demanded. 

The married life of this young couple was a 
short one. Three years after their wedding cere- 
monies the young monarch contracted smallpox 
and died without issue, and was followed shortly 
afterwards by his young wife who heeded liter- 
ally the instruction of one of their female teach- 
ers in her duty to her husband to 

Share his joy as well as sorrow, riches, poverty or guilt, 
And in death be buried with him, as in life you shared 
his guilt. 

That her nearest relatives did not believe, as 
has often been suggested, that there was any 
" foul play " in regard to her death, is evident 
from the fact that her father continued to hold 
office until the time of the Boxer uprising, at 
which time he followed the fleeing court as far as 
Paotingfu, where having heard that the capital 
was in the hands of the hated foreigners, he sent 
word back to his family that he would neither eat 
the foreigners' bread nor drink their water, but 
would prefer to die by his own hand. When his 
family received this message they commanded 
their servants to dig a great pit in their own 
court in which they all lay and ordered the coolies 
to bury them. This they at first refused to do, 



The Empress Dowager — As a Ruler 41 

but they were finally prevailed upon, and thus 
perished all the male members of her father's 
household except one child that was rescued and 
carried away by a faithful nurse. 

When Tung Chih died there was a formidable 
party in the palace opposed to the two dowagers, 
anxious to oust them and their party and place 
upon the throne a dissolute son of Prince Kung. 
But it would require a master mind from the out- 
side to learn of the death of her son and select 
and proclaim a successor quicker than the Em- 
press Dowager herself could do so from the in- 
side. She first sent a secret messenger to Li 
Hung-chang whom she had appointed viceroy 
of the metropolitan province at Tientsin eighty 
miles away, informing him of the illness of her 
son and urging him to come to Peking with his 
troops post-haste and be ready to prevent any 
disturbance in case of his death and the announce- 
ment of a successor. 

When Li Hung-chang received her orders, he 
began at once to put them into execution. Tak- 
ing with him four thousand of his most reliable 
Anhui men, all well-armed horse, foot and artil- 
lery, he made a secret forced march to Peking. 
The distance of eighty miles was covered in 
thirty-six hours and he planned to arrive at mid- 
night. Exactly on the hour Li and his picked 
guard were admitted, and in dead silence they 
marched into the Forbidden City. Every man 



42 Court Life in China 

had in his mouth a wooden bit to prevent talk- 
ing, while the metal trappings of the horses were 
muffled to deaden all sound. When they arrived 
at the forbidden precincts, the Manchu Banner- 
men on guard at the various city gates were re- 
placed by Li's Anhui braves, and as the Empress 
Dowager had sent eunuchs to point out the pal- 
ace troops which were doubtful or that had openly 
declared for the conspirators, these were at once 
disarmed, bound and sent to prison. The artil- 
lery were ordered to guard the gates of the For- 
bidden City, the cavalry to patrol the grounds, 
and the foot-soldiers to pick up any stray con- 
spirators that could be found. A strong detach- 
ment was stationed so as to surround the Empress 
Dowager and the child whom she had selected as 
a successor to her son, and when the morning sun 
rose bright and clear over the Forbidden City 
the surprise of the conspirators who had slept the 
night away was complete. Of the disaffected 
that remained, some were put in prison and 
others sent into perpetual exile to the Amoor be- 
yond their native borders, and when the Empress 
Dowager announced the death of her son, she 
proclaimed the son of her sister, Kuang Hsu, as 
his successor, with herself and the Empress as re- 
gents during his minority. When everything 
was settled, Li folded his tent like the Arab, and 
stole away as silently as he had come. 

The wisdom and greatness of the Empress 



The Empress Dowager — As a Ruler 43 

Dowager were thus manifested in binding to the 
throne the greatest men not only in the capital but 
in the provinces. Li Hung-chang had won his 
title to greatness during the Tai-ping rebellion, 
for his part in the final extinction of which he 
was ennobled as an Earl. From this time on- 
ward she placed him in the highest positions of 
honour and power within sufficient proximity to 
the capital to have his services within easy reach. 
For twenty-four years he was kept as viceroy of 
the metropolitan province of Chihli, with the 
largest and best drilled army at his command 
that China had ever had, and yet during all this 
time he realized that he was watched with the 
eyes of an eagle lest he manifest any signs of re- 
bellion, while his nephew was kept in the capital 
as a hostage for his good conduct. Once and 
again when he had reached the zenith of his 
power, or had been feted by foreign potentates 
enough to turn the head of a bronze Buddha, 
his yellow jacket and peacock feather were 
kindly but firmly removed to remind him that 
there was a power in Peking on whom he was 
dependent. 

Li Hung-chang's greatness made him many 
enemies. Those whom he defeated, those whom 
he would not or could not help, those whom he 
punished or put out of office, and those whose 
enmity was the result of jealousy. When the 
war with Japan closed and the Chinese govern- 



44 Court Life in China 

ment sent Chang Yin-huan to negotiate a treaty 
of peace, the Japanese refused to accept him, 
nor were they willing to take up the matter until 
11 Li Hung-chang was appointed envoy, chiefly 
because of his great influence over the govern- 
ment, and the respect in which he was held by 
the people." We all know how he went, how he 
was shot in the face by a Japanese fanatic, the 
ball lodging under the left eye, where it re- 
mained a memento which he carried to the 
grave. We all know how he recovered from 
the wound, and how because of his sufferings he 
was able to negotiate a better treaty than he 
could otherwise have done. Then he returned 
home, and only " the friendship of the Empress 
and his own personal sufferings saved his life," 
says Colonel Denby, for "the new treaty was 
urgently denounced in China" by carping critics 
who would not have been recognized as envoys 
by their Japanese enemies. 

In 1896 he was appointed to attend the coro- 
nation of the Czar at Moscow, and thence con- 
tinued his trip around the world. Never before 
nor since has a Chinese statesman or even a 
prince been f&ted as he was "in every country 
through which he passed. When he was about 
to start, at his request I had a round fan 
painted for him, with a map of the Eastern 
hemisphere on one side and the Western on the 
other, on which all the steamship lines and rail- 



The Empress Dowager — As a Ruler 45 

roads over which he was to travel were clearly 
marked, with all the ports and cities at which he 
expected to stop. He was photographed with 
Gladstone, and hailed as the " Bismarck of the 
East," but when he returned to Peking, for no 
reason but jealousy, " he was treated as an extinct 
volcano." The Empress Dowager invited him 
to the Summer Palace where he was shown about 
the place by the eunuchs, treated to tea and pipes, 
and led into pavilions where only Her Majesty 
was allowed to enter, and then denounced to the 
Board of Punishments who were against him to 
a man. And now this Grand Secretary whom 
kings and courts had honoured, whom emperors 
and presidents had feted, and our own govern- 
ment had spent thirty thousand dollars in enter- 
taining, was once more stripped of his yellow 
jacket and peacock feather, and fined the half 
of a year's salary as a member of the For- 
eign Office, which was the amusing sum of 
forty-five taels or about thirty-five dollars gold, 
and it was said in Peking at the time that 
only the intercession of the Empress Dowager 
saved him from imprisonment or further dis- 
grace. 

During the whole regency of the Empress 
Dowager only two men have occupied the posi- 
tion of President of the Grand Council — Prince 
Kung and Prince Ching. While the former was 
degraded many times and had his honours all 



46 Court Life in China 

taken from him, the latter " has kept himself on 
top of a rolling log for thirty years" without 
losing any of the honours which were originally 
conferred upon him. The same is true of 
Chang Chih-tung, Liu Kun-yi and Wang Wen- 
shao, three great viceroys and Grand Secretaries 
whom the Empress Dowager has never allowed 
to be without an important office, but whom she 
has never degraded. Need we ask the reason 
why? The answer is not far to seek. They 
were the most eminent progressive officials she 
had in her empire, but none of them were great 
enough to be a menace to her dynasty, and 
hence need not be reminded that there was a 
power above them which by a stroke of her pen 
could transfer them from stars in the official 
firmament to dandelions in the grass. Not so 
with Yuan Shih-kai — but we will speak of him 
in another chapter. 

All the great officials thus far mentioned have 
belonged to the progressive rather than the con- 
servative party, all of them the favourites of the 
Empress Dowager, placed in positions of in- 
fluence and kept in office by her, all of them 
working for progress and reform, and yet she 
has been constantly spoken of by European 
writers as a reactionary. Nothing could be 
farther from the truth, as we shall see. Never- 
theless she kept some of the great conservative 
officials in office either as viceroys or Grand 



The Empress Dowager — As a Ruler 47 

Secretaries that she might be able to hear both 
sides of all important questions. 

One of these conservatives was Jung Lu, the 
father-in-law of the present Regent. When she 
placed Yuan Shih-kai in charge of the army of 
north China, she also appointed Jung Lu as 
Governor-General of the metropolitan province 
of Chihli. One was a progressive, the other a 
conservative. Neither could make any impor- 
tant move without the knowledge and consent of 
the other. Whether the Empress Dowager fore- 
saw the danger that was likely to arise, we do 
not know, but she provided against it. We 
refer to the occasion when in 1898 the Emperor 
ordered Yuan Shih-kai to bring his troops to 
Peking, guard the Empress Dowager a prisoner 
in the Summer Palace, and protect him in his 
efforts at reform. The story belongs in another 
chapter, but we refer to it here to show how the 
Empress Dowager played one official against 
another, and one party against another, to pre- 
vent any such calamity or surprise. It would 
have been impossible for Yuan Shih-kai to have 
taken his troops to Peking for any purpose with- 
out first informing his superior officer Jung Lu 
unless he put him to death, much less to have 
gone on such a mission as that of imprisoning as 
important a personage as the Empress Dowager, 
to whom they were both indebted for their office. 

Another instance of the way in which the 



48 Court Life in China 

Empress Dowager played one party against 
another was the appointment of Prince Tuan as 
a member of the Foreign Office. After his son 
had been selected as the heir-apparent it seemed 
to the Empress Dowager that for his own edu- 
cation and development he should be made to 
come in contact with the foreigners. Most of 
the foreigners considered the appointment ob- 
jectionable on account of the " Prince's anti- 
foreign tendencies. But to my mind," says Sir 
Robert Hart, " it was a good one ; the Empress 
Dowager had probably said to the Prince, ' You 
and your party pull one way, Prince Ching and 
his another — what am I to do between you ? 
You, however, are the father of the future 
Emperor, and have your son's interests to take 
care of; you are also head of the Boxers and 
chief of the Peking Field Force, and ought 
therefore to know what can and what cannot 
be done. I therefore appoint you to the yamen ; 
do what you consider most expedient, and take 
care that the throne of your ancestors descends 
untarnished to your son, and their empire un- 
diminished ! yours is the power, — yours the re- 
sponsibility — and yours the chief interests ! ' I 
can imagine the Empress Dowager taking this 
line with the Prince, and, inasmuch as various 
ministers who had been very anti-foreign before 
entering the yamen had turned round and be- 
haved very sensibly afterwards, I felt sure that 



The Empress Dowager — As a Ruler 49 

responsibility and actual personal dealings with 
foreigners would be a good experience and a 
useful education for this Prince, and that he 
would eventually be one of the sturdiest sup- 
porters of progress and good relations." 



IV 

The Empress Dowager — As a Reactionist 



The most interesting personage in China during the 
past thirty years has been and still is without doubt the 
lady whom we style the Empress Dowager. The char- 
acter of the Empress's rule can only be judged by what 
it was during the regency, when she was at the head of 
every movement that partook of the character of reform. 
Foreign diplomacy has failed, for want of a definite centre 
of volition and sensation to act upon. It had no fulcrum 
for its lever. Hence only force has ever succeeded in 
China. With a woman like the Empress might it not be 
possible really to transact business ? 

— Blackwood's Magazine. 



IV 

THE EMPRESS DOWAGER— AS A REACTIONIST 

IT was between November I, 1897, and April 
16, 1898, that Germany, Russia, France and 
England wrested from the weak hands of 
the Emperor Kuang Hsu the four best ports in 
the Chinese empire, leaving China without a 
place to rendezvous a fleet. The whole empire 
was aroused to indignation, and even in our 
Christian schools, every essay, oration, dialogue 
or debate was a discussion of some phase of the 
subject, " How to reform and strengthen China." 
The students all thought, the young reformers all 
thought, and the foreigners all thought that 
Kuang Hsu had struck the right track. The 
great Chinese officials, however, were in doubt, 
and it was because of their doubt — progressives 
as well as conservatives — that the Empress 
Dowager was again called to the throne. 

Now may I request the enemies of the Empress 
Dowager to ask themselves what they would 
have done if they had been placed at the head of 
their own government when it was thus being 
filched from them ? You say she was anti-foreign 
— would you have been very much in love with 
Germany, Russia, France and England under 

53 



54 Court Life in China 

those circumstances? That she acted unwisely 
in placing herself in the hands of the conserva- 
tives and allying herself with the superstitious 
Boxers, we must all frankly admit. But what 
would you have done ? Might you not — I do not 
say you would with your intelligence — but might 
you not have been induced to have clutched at as 
great a log as the patriotic Boxers seemed to pre- 
sent, if you had been as near drowning as she was ? 

" It is generally supposed," says one of her 
critics, " that Kang Yu-wei suggested to the Em- 
peror, that if he would render his own position 
secure, he must retire the Empress Dowager, and 
decapitate Jung Lu." If that be true, and I think 
it very reasonable, the condition must have been 
desperate, when the reformers had to begin kill- 
ing the greatest of their opponents, and impris- 
oning those who had given them their power, 
though neither of these at that time had raised a 
hand against them. Have you noticed how 
ready we are to forgive those on our side for 
doing that for which we would bitterly condemn 
our opponents ? The same people who condemn 
the Empress Dowager for beheading the six 
young reformers stand ready to forgive Kuang 
Hsu for ordering the decapitation of Jung Lu, and 
the imprisonment of his foster-mother. 

There were two powerful factions in Peking, the 
progressives, headed by Prince Ching ; and the 
conservatives, headed by Jung Lu. Now the 



The Empress Dowager — As a Reactionist 55 

Empress Dowager may have reasoned thus : 
" The progressives and reformers have had their 
day. They have tried their plans and they have 
failed. The only result they have secured is 
peace — but peace always at the expense of terri- 
tory. Now I propose to try another plan. I 
will part with no more ports, and I will resist to 
the death every encroachment." She therefore 
took up Li Ping-heng, who had been deposed 
from the governorship of Shantung at the time 
of the murder of the German missionaries, and 
appointed him Generalissimo of the forces of the 
Yangtse, where he no doubt promised to resist 
to the last all encroachments of the foreigners in 
that part of the empire while Jung Lu was re- 
tained in Peking as head of all the forces of the 
province of Chihli and the Northern Squadron. 
She then appointed Kang Yi, another conserva- 
tive, equally as anti-foreign as Li Ping-heng, to 
inspect the fortifications and garrisons of the em- 
pire, and to raise an immense sum of money for 
the depleted treasury. In his visits to the south- 
ern provinces, Kang Yi at this time raised not 
less than two million taels, which was no doubt 
spent in the purchase of guns and ammunition 
and other preparations for war. Yii Hsien, another 
equally conservative Manchu, she appointed 
Governor of Shantung to succeed Li Ping-heng, 
and it is to him the whole Boxer uprising is due. 
Moreover when he, at the repeated requests of 



56 Court Life in China 

the foreigners, was removed from Shantung, she 
received him in audience at Peking, conferred 
upon him additional honours and appointed him 
Governor of the adjoining province of Shansi, 
where, and under whose jurisdiction, almost all 
the massacres were committed. Indeed Yii 
Hsien may be considered the whole Boxer move- 
ment, for this seems to have been his plan for 
getting rid of the foreigners. 

But while thus allying herself with the conserv- 
atives, the Empress Dowager did not cut herself 
off from the progressives. Li Hung-chang was 
appointed Viceroy of Kuangtung, Yuan Shih-kai 
Governor of Shantung and Tuan Fang of Shensi 
while Liu Kun-yi, Chang Chih-tung, and Kuei 
Chun were kept at their posts, so that she had 
all the greatest men of both parties once more in 
her service. Then she began sending out edicts, 
retracting those issued by Kuang Hsu, and what 
could be more considerate of the feelings of the 
Emperor, or more diplomatic as a state paper 
than the following, issued in the name of Kuang 
Hsu, September 26, 1898. 

" Our real desire was to make away with su- 
perfluous posts for the sake of economy : whereas, 
on the contrary, we find rumours flying abroad 
that we intended to change wholesale the cus- 
toms of the empire, and, in consequence, innu- 
merable impossible suggestions of reform have 
been presented to us. If we allowed this to go 



The Empress Dowager — As a Reactionist 57 

on, none of us would know to what pass matters 
would come. Hence, unless we hasten to put 
our present wishes clearly before all, we greatly 
fear that the petty yamen officials and their un- 
derlings will put their own construction on what 
commands have gone before, and create a fer- 
ment in the midst of the usual calm of the people. 
This will indeed be contrary to our desire, and 
put our reforms for strengthening and enriching 
our empire to naught. 

"We therefore hereby command that the 
Supervisorate of Instruction and other five minor 
Courts and Boards, which were recently abol- 
ished by us and their duties amalgamated with 
other Boards for the sake of economy, etc., be 
forthwith restored to their original state and du- 
ties, because we have learned that the process of 
amalgamation contains many difficulties and will 
require too much labour. We think, therefore, 
it is best that these offices be not abolished at all, 
there being no actual necessity for doing this. 
As for the provincial bureaus and official posts 
ordered to be abolished, the work in this connec- 
tion can go on as usual, and the viceroys and 
governors are exhorted to work earnestly and 
diligently in the above duty. Again as to the 
edict ordering the establishment of an official 
newspaper, the Chinese Progress, and the privi- 
lege granted to all scholars and commoners to 
memorialize us on reforms, etc., this was issued 



58 Court Life in China 

in order that a way might be opened by which 
we could come into touch with our subjects, high 
and low. But as we have also given extra liberty 
to our censors and high officers to report to us 
on all matters pertaining to the people and their 
government, any reforms necessary, suggested 
by these officers, will be attended to at once by 
us. Hence we consider that our former edict 
allowing all persons to report to us is, for obvi- 
ous reasons, superfluous, with the present legiti- 
mate machinery at hand. And we now command 
that the privilege be withdrawn, and only the 
proper officers be permitted to report to us as to 
what is going on in our empire. As for the news- 
paper Chinese Progress, it is really of no use to 
the government, while, on the other hand, it will 
excite the masses to evil ; hence we command 
the said paper to be suppressed. 

" With regard to the proposed Peking Uni- 
versity and the middle schools in the provincial 
capitals, they may go on as usual, as they are a 
nursery for the perfection of true ability and tal- 
ents. But with reference to the lower schools in 
the sub-prefectures and districts there need be no 
compulsion, full liberty being given to the people 
thereof to do what they please in this connec- 
tion. As for the unofficial Buddhist, Taoist, 
and memorial temples which were ordered to 
be turned into district schools, etc., so long as 
these institutions have not broken the laws by 



The Empress Dowager — As a Reactionist 59 

any improper conduct of the inmates, or the dei- 
ties worshipped in them are not of the seditious 
kind, they are hereby excused from the edict 
above noted. At the present moment, when the 
country is undergoing a crisis of danger and 
difficulty, we must be careful of what may be 
done, or what may not, and select only such 
measures as may be really of benefit to the 
empire." 

I submit the above edict to the reader request- 
ing him to study it, and, if necessary to its un- 
derstanding, to copy it, and see if the Empress 
Dowager has not preserved the best there is in 
it, viz., " the Peking University, and the middle 
schools in the provincial capitals," " full liberty 
being given to the people with reference to the 
lower schools in the sub-prefectures and districts 
to do as they please." How much oil would be 
cast on how many troubled waters can only be 
realized by the unfortunate priests and dismissed 
officials and people upon whom " there need be 
no compulsion " I 

Three days after the foregoing, on September 
29th, she issued another edict purporting to 
come from the Emperor, ordering the punish- 
ment of Kang Yu-wei and others of his confreres. 
Now, if it is true that Kang Yu-wei advised the 
Emperor to behead Jung Lu and imprison the 
Empress Dowager, for no cause whatsoever, 
how would you have been inclined to treat him 



60 Court Life in China 

supposing you had been in her place ? The de- 
cree says : 

" All know that we try to rule this empire by 
our filial piety towards the Empress Dowager ; 
but Kang Yu-wei's doctrines have always been 
opposed to the ancient Confucian tenets. 
Owing, however, to the ability shown by the 
said Kang Yu-wei in modern and practical mat- 
ters, we sought to take advantage of it by ap- 
pointing him a secretary of the Foreign Office, 
and subsequently ordered him to Shanghai to 
direct the management of the official newspaper 
there. Instead of this, however, he dared to re- 
main in Peking pursuing his nefarious designs 
against the dynasty, and had it not been for the 
protection given by the spirits of our ancestors 
he certainly would have succeeded. Kang Yu- 
wei is therefore the arch conspirator, and his 
chief assistant is Liang Chi-tsao, M. A., and they 
are both to be immediately arrested and punished 
for the crime of rebellion. The other principal 
conspirators, namely, the Censor Yang Shen- 
hsin, Kang Kuang-jen — the brother of Kang 
Yu-wei — and the four secretaries of the Tsungli 
Yamen, Tan Sze-tung, Liu Hsin, Yang Jui, and 
Liu Kuang-ti, we immediately ordered to be 
arrested and imprisoned by the Board of Pun- 
ishments: but fearing that if any delay ensued 
in sentencing them they would endeavour to en- 
tangle a number of others, we accordingly com- 



The Empress Dowager — As a Reactionist 61 

manded yesterday (September 28th) their imme- 
diate execution, so as to close the matter entirely 
and prevent further troubles." 

This with the execution of one or two other 
officials is the greatest crime that can be laid at 
the door of the Empress Dowager — great 
enough in all conscience — yet not to be com- 
pared to those of " good Queen Bess." 

We now come to what is said to have been a 
secret edict issued by the Empress Dowager to 
her viceroys, governors, Tartar generals and the 
commanders-in-chief of the provinces, dated 
November 21, 1899. And this I regard as one 
of the greatest and most daring things that 
great woman ever undertook. 

After the Empress Dowager had taken the 
throne, Italy, following the example set by the 
other powers, demanded the cession of Sanmen 
Bay in the province of Chekiang. But she 
found a different ruler on the throne, and to her 
great surprise, as well as that of every one else, 
China returned a stubborn refusal. Moreover, 
she began to prepare to resist the demand, and 
it soon became evident that to obtain it, Italy 
must go to war. This she had not the stomach 
for and so the demand was withdrawn. This 
explanation will go far towards helping us to 
understand the following secret edict of No- 
vember 2 1 st, to which I have already referred. 

" Our empire is now labouring under great 



62 Court Life in China 

difficulties which are becoming daily more and 
more serious. The various Powers cast upon 
us looks of tiger-like voracity, hustling each 
other in their endeavours to be the first to seize 
upon our innermost territories. They think that 
China, having neither money nor troops, would 
never venture to go to war with them. They 
fail to understand, however, that there are cer- 
tain things that this empire can never consent 
to, and that, if hardly pressed upon, we have 
no alternative but to rely upon the justice of our 
cause, the knowledge of which in our breasts 
strengthens our resolves and steels us to present 
a united front against our aggressors. No one 
can guarantee, under such circumstances, who 
will be the victor and who the vanquished in 
the end. But there is an evil habit which has 
become almost a custom among our viceroys 
and governors which, however, must be eradi- 
cated at all costs. For instance, whenever 
these high officials have had on their hands 
cases of international dispute, all their actions 
seem to be guided by the belief in their breasts 
that such cases would eventually be ' amicably 
arranged.' These words seem never to be out 
of their thoughts : hence, when matters do come 
to a crisis, they, of course, find themselves 
utterly unprepared to resist any hostile aggres- 
sions on the part of the foreigner. We, indeed, 
consider this the most serious failure in the duty 



The Empress Dowager — As a Reactionist 63 

which the highest provincial authorities owe to 
the throne, and we now find it incumbent upon 
ourselves to censure such conduct in the most 
severe terms. 

"It is our special command, therefore, that 
should any high official find himself so hard 
pressed by circumstances that nothing short of 
war would settle matters, he is expected to set 
himself resolutely to work out his duty to this 
end. Or, perhaps, it would be that war has 
already actually been declared ; under such 
circumstanees there is no possible chance of the 
imperial government consenting to an imme- 
diate conference for the restoration of peace. It 
behooves, therefore, that our viceroys, governors, 
and commanders-in-chief throughout the whole 
empire unite forces and act together without 
distinction or particularizing of jurisdictions so 
as to present a combined front to the enemy, 
exhorting and encouraging their officers and 
soldiers in person to fight for the preservation 
of their homes and native soil from the en- 
croaching footsteps of the foreign aggressor. 
Never should the word ' Peace ' fall from the 
mouths of our high officials, nor should they 
even allow it to rest for a moment within their 
breasts. With such a country as ours, with her 
vast area, stretching out several tens of thousands 
of li, her immense natural resources, and her 
hundreds of millions of inhabitants, if only each 



64 Court Life in China 

and all of you would prove his loyalty to his 
Emperor and love of country, what, indeed, is 
there to fear from any invader ? Let no one 
think of making peace, but let each strive to 
preserve from destruction and spoliation his 
ancestral home and graves from the ruthless 
hands of the invader." 

One of her critics, referring to the last sen- 
tence of the above edict, asks : " Do not these 
words throw down the gauntlet ? " And we 
answer, yes. Did not the thirteen colonies 
throw down the gauntlet to England for less 
cause ? Did not Japan throw down the gauntlet 
to Russia for less cause than the Empress 
Dowager had for desiring that "each strive to 
preserve from destruction and spoliatio7i his an- 
cestral ho?ne and graves" ? It was not for con- 
quest but for self-preservation the Empress 
Dowager was ready to go to war ; not for glory 
but for home ; not against a taunting neighbour, 
but against a "ruthless invader." Her un- 
wisdom did not consist in her being ready to go 
to war, but in allowing herself to be allied to, 
and depend upon, the superstitious rabble of 
Boxers, and to believe that her " hundreds of 
millions " of undisciplined " inhabitants " could 
withstand the thousands or tens of thousands 
of well-drilled, well-led, intelligent soldiers from 
the West. 

That she was ready to go to war rather than 



The Empress Dowager — As a Reactionist 65" 

weakly yield to the demands for territory from 
the European powers is further evidenced by 
the following edict issued by the Tsungli Yamen 
to the viceroys and governors : 

" This yamen has received the special com- 
mands of her Imperial Majesty the Empress 
Dowager, and his Imperial Majesty the Em- 
peror, to grant you full power and liberty to re- 
sist by force of arms all aggressions upon your 
several jurisdictions, proclaiming a state of war, 
if necessary, without first asking instructions from 
Peking ; for this loss of time may be fatal to your 
security, and enable the enemy to make good his 
footing against your forces." 

In order to strengthen her position she ap- 
pointed two commissioners whom she sent to Ja- 
pan in the hope of forming a secret defensive 
alliance with that nation against the White Peril 
from the West. For once, however, she made a 
mistake in the selection of her men, for these 
commissioners, unlike what we usually find the 
yellow man, revealed too much of the important 
mission on which they were bent, and were re- 
called in disgrace, and the treaty came to naught. 



V 

The Empress Dowager — As a Reformer 



Taught by the failure of a reaction on which she had 
staked her life and her throne, the Dowager has became a 
convert to the policy of progress. She has, in fact, out- 
stripped her nephew. "Long may she live!" "Late 
may she rule us ! " During her lifetime she may be counted 
on to carry forward the cause she has so ardently es- 
poused. She grasps the reins with a firm hand ; and her 
courage is such that she does not hesitate to drive the 
chariot of state over many a new and untried road. She 
knows she can rely on the support of her viceroys — men 
of her own appointment. She knows too that the spirit of 
reform is abroad in the land, and that the heart of the 
people is with her. 

— W. A. P. Martin in " The Awakening of China." 



THE EMPRESS DOWAGER— AS A REFORMER 

IN June, 1902, soon after the return of the 
court from Hsian to Peking, a company of 
ladies from the various legations in Peking 
who had received invitations to an audience and 
a banquet with the Empress Dowager were asked 
to meet at one of the legations for the purpose of 
consultation. The meeting was unusual. Many 
of those who were present had no higher motive 
than the ordinary tourist who goes sightseeing. 
With the exception of one or two who had been 
in once before, none of these ladies had ever been 
present at an audience. Several of them, however 
had passed through the Boxer siege of 1900, had 
witnessed the guns from the wall of the Imperial 
City pouring shot and shell into the British lega- 
tion, where they were confined during those eight 
memorable weeks of June, July and August, and 
had come out with their hearts filled with resent- 
ment. One of them had received a decoration 
from her government for her bravery in stand- 
ing beside her husband on the fortifications when 
buildings were crumbling and walls falling, and 
her husband was buried by an exploding mine, 
and then vomited out unhurt by a second ex- 

69 



70 Court Life in China 

plosion. Among the number were several recent 
arrivals in Peking who had had none of these 
bitter experiences, but had heard much of the 
Empress Dowager, and above all things else they 
were anxious to see her whom they called the 
" She Dragon." 

The presiding officer had been longest in Pe- 
king, and as doyen of these diplomatic ladies, she 
acted as chairman of the meeting. The first 
question to be decided was the mode of convey- 
ance to the " Forbidden City." Without much 
discussion it was decided to use the sedan chair, 
as being the most dignified, and used only by 
Chinese ladies of rank. The chairman then 
called for an expression of opinion as to the 
method of procedure in presentation to the throne. 
One suggested that they have no ceremony 
about it, but all go up to the throne together, for 
in this way none would take precedence, but all 
would have an equal opportunity of satisfying 
their curiosity and scrutinizing this female dragon 
ad libitum. Another said : " It will be broiling 
hot on that June day, and it will be better to keep 
at a safe distance from her, with plenty of guards 
to protect us, or we may be broiled in more senses 
than one." The chairman looked worried at 
these suggestions, but still kept her dignity and 
her equilibrium. Then a mild voice suggested 
that it was customary in all audiences for those 
presented to courtesy to the one on the throne. 



The Empress Dowager — As a Reformer 71 

" Courtesy ! " broke in an indignant voice, " it 
would be more appropriate for her to prostrate 
herself at our feet and beg us to forgive her for 
trying to shoot us, than for us to courtesy to her." 
It was finally decided, however, that the same 
formalities be observed as were followed by the 
ministers when received at court. I give these 
incidents to show the temper that prevailed among 
the members of some of the legations at Peking 
at the time of this first audience. 

"When a few days later we followed the long line 
of richly-robed princesses into the audience-hall, 
all this was changed. As we looked at the Empress 
Dowager seated upon her throne on a raised dais, 
with the Emperor to her left and members of the 
Grand Council kneeling beside her, and these 
dignified, stately princesses courtesying until their 
knees touched the floor, we forgot the resentful 
feeling expressed in the meeting a few days be- 
fore, and, awed by her majestic bearing and sur- 
roundings, we involuntarily gave the three courte- 
sies required from those entering the imperial 
presence. We could not but feel that this stately 
woman who sat upon the throne was every inch 
an empress. In her hands rested the weal or 
woe of one-third of the human race. Her bril- 
liant black eyes seemed to read our thoughts. 
Indeed she prides herself upon the fact that at a 
glance she can read the character of every one 
that appears before her." 



72 Court Life in China 

After the ladies had taken their position in 
order of their rank, the doyen presented their 
good wishes to Her Majesty, which was replied 
to by a few gracious words from the throne. 
Each lady's name was then announced and as 
she was formally presented she ascended the 
dais, and as she courtesied, the Empress Dow- 
ager extended her hand which she took, and then 
passed to the left to be introduced in a similar 
way to the Emperor. 

It was thus she began her reforms in the cus- 
toms of the court, which up to this time had kept 
her ever behind the screen, compelled to wield 
the sceptre from her place of concealment, equally 
shut out from the eyes of the world and blind to 
the needs of her people. Up to her time the 
people and the nation were the slaves of age-old 
customs, but before the power of her personality 
rites and ceremonies became the servants of the 
people. In the words of the poet she seemed to 
feel that 

"Rules 

Are well ; but never fear to break 

The scaffolding of other souls ; 

It was not meant for thee to mount, 

Though it may serve thee." 

Without taking away from the Emperor the 
credit of introducing the railroad, the telegraph, 
the telephone, the new system of education, and 
many other reforms, we must still admit that it 



The Empress Dowager — As a Reformer 73 

was the personality, power and statesmanship of 
the Empress Dowager that brought about the 
realization of his dreams. The movement to- 
wards female education as described in another 
chapter must ever be placed to the credit of this 
great woman. From the time she came from 
behind the screen, and allowed her portrait to be 
painted, the freedom of woman was assured. 

One day when calling at the American lega- 
tion I was shown two large photographs of Her 
Majesty. One some three feet square was to be 
sent to President Roosevelt, the other was a gift 
to Major Conger. Similar photographs had been 
sent to all the ministers and rulers represented 
at Peking, and I said to myself : " The Empress 
Dowager is shrewd. She knows that false pic- 
tures of her have gone forth. She knows that 
the painted portrait is not a good likeness, and 
so she proposes to have genuine pictures in the 
possession of all civilized governments." This 
shrewdness was not necessarily native on her 
part, but was engendered by the arguments that 
had been used by those who induced her to be 
the first Chinese monarch to have her portrait 
painted by a foreign artist. 

A few years ago the Empress Dowager had a 
dream, which, like every act of hers, was greater 
than any of those of her brilliant nephew. This 
dream was to give a constitution to China. Of 
course, if this were done it would have to be by 



y4 Court Life in China 

the Manchus, as the government was theirs, and 
any radical changes that were made would have 
to be made by the people in power. The Em- 
press Dowager, however, wanted the honour of 
this move to reflect upon herself, and hoped to 
be able to bring it to a successful issue during 
her lifetime. 

There was strenuous opposition, and this most 
vigorous in the party in which she had placed 
herself when she dethroned Kuang Hsu. The 
conservatives regarded this as the wildest venture 
that had yet been made, and were ready to use 
all their influence to prevent it ; nevertheless the 
Empress Dowager called to her aid the greatest 
and most progressive of the Manchus, the Vice- 
roy Tuan Fang, and appointed him head of a 
commission which she proposed to send on a 
tour of the world to examine carefully the various 
forms of government, with the purpose of advi- 
sing her, on their return, as to the possibility of 
giving a constitution to China. 

A special train was provided to take the com- 
mission from Peking to Tientsin. It was drawn 
up at the station just outside the gate in front of 
the Emperor's palace. The commission had 
entered the car, and the narrow hall or aisle 
along the side was crowded with those who had 
come to see them off, when, bang, there was an 
explosion, the side of the car was blown out, 
several were injured, including slight wounds to 



The Empress Dowager — As a Reformer 75 

some of the members of the commission, and 
the man carrying the bomb was blown into an 
unrecognizable mass. For a few days the city 
was in an uproar. Guards were placed at all the 
gates, especially those leading to the palace, and 
every possible effort was made to identify the 
nihilist. But as all efforts failed, and nothing 
further transpired to indicate that he had accom- 
plices, the commission separated and departing 
individually without display, reunited at Tien- 
tsin and started on their tour of inspection. 

This commission was splendidly entertained 
wherever it went, given every possible oppor- 
tunity to examine the constitutions of the coun- 
tries through which it passed, and on its return 
to Peking the report of the trip was published in 
one hundred and twenty volumes, the most im- 
portant item of which was that a constitution, 
modelled after that of Japan, should be given to 
China at as early a date as possible. 

The leader of this expedition, His Excellency 
the Viceroy Tuan Fang, is one of the greatest, if 
not the greatest living Manchu statesman. 
Like Yuan Shih-kai, during the Boxer uprising, 
he protected all the foreigners within his do- 
mains. That he appreciates the work done by 
Americans in the opening up of China is 
evidenced by a statement made in his address at 
the Waldorf Astoria, in February, 1906, in 
which he said : 



76 Court Life in China 

"We take pleasure this evening in bearing 
testimony to the part taken by American mis- 
sionaries in promoting the progress of the 
Chinese people. They have borne the light of 
Western civilization into every nook and corner 
of the empire. They have rendered inestimable 
service to China by the laborious task of trans- 
lating into the Chinese language religious and 
scientific works of the West. They help us to 
bring happiness and comfort to the poor and 
the suffering, by the establishment of hospitals 
and schools. The awakening of China, which 
now seems to be at hand, may be traced in no 
small measure to the influence of the missionary. 
For this service you will find China not ungrateful." 

Some may think that this was simply a senti- 
ment expressed on this particular occasion be- 
cause he happened to be surrounded by 
secretaries and others interested in this cause. 
That this is not the case is further indicated by 
the fact that since that time he has on two sepa- 
rate occasions attended the commencement 
exercises of the Nanking University, on one of 
which he addressed the students as follows : 

" This is the second time I have attended the 
commencement exercises of your school. I ap- 
preciate the good order I find here. I rejoice at 
the evidences I see of your knowledge of the 
proprieties, the depth of your learning, and the 
character of the students of this institution. I 



The Empress Dowager — As a Reformer 77 

am deeply grateful to the president and faculty 
for the goodness manifested to these my people. 
I have seen evidences of it in every detail. It is 
my hope that when these graduates go out into 
the world, they will remember the love of their 
teachers, and will practice that virtue in their 
dealing with others. The fundamental principle 
of all great teachers whether of the East or the 
West is love, and it remains for you, young 
gentlemen, to practice this virtue. Thus your 
knowledge will be practical and your talents 
useful." 

I have given these quotations as evidences of 
the breadth of the man whom the Empress 
Dowager selected as the head of this commis- 
sion. It is not generally known, however, that 
Duke Tse, another important member of this 
commission, is married to a sister of the young 
Empress Yehonala, and consequently a niece of 
the Empress Dowager. Such relations existed 
between Her Majesty and the viceroy, as ruler 
and subject, that it would be impossible for him 
to give her the intimate account of their trip 
that a relative could give. It would be equally 
impossible, with all her other duties, to wade 
through a report such as they published after 
their return of one hundred and twenty volumes. 
But it would be a delight to call in this nephew- 
in-law, and have him sit or kneel, and may we not 
believe she allowed him to sit? and give her a 



78 Court Life in China 

full and intimate account of the trip and the 
countries through which they passed. She was 
anxious that this constitution should be given to 
the people before she passed away. This, how- 
ever, could not be. Whether it will be adopted 
within the time allotted is a question which the 
future alone can answer. 

The next great reform undertaken by the 
Empress Dowager was her crusade against 
opium. The importance of this can only be 
estimated when we consider the prevalence of 
the use of the drug throughout the empire. 
The Chinese tell us that thirty to forty per cent, 
of the adult population are addicted to the use 
of the drug. 

One day while walking along the street in 
Peking, I passed a gateway from which there 
came an odour that was not only offensive but 
sickening. I went on a little distance further 
and entered one of the best curio shops of the 
city, and going into the back room, I found the 
odour of the street emphasized tenfold, as one of 
the employees of the firm had just finished his 
smoke. I left this shop and went to another 
where the proprietor had entirely ruined his 
business by his use of the drug, and it was 
about this time that the Empress Dowager 
issued the following edict : 

" Since the first prohibition of opium, almost 
the whole of China has been flooded with the 



1 he Empress Dowager — As a Reformer 79 

poison. Smokers of opium have wasted their 
time, neglected their employment, ruined their 
constitutions, and impoverished their households. 
For several decades therefore China has presented 
a spectacle of increasing poverty and weakness. 
To merely mention the matter, arouses our indig- 
nation. The court has now determined to make 
China powerful, and to this end we urge our 
people to reformation in this respect. 

" We, therefore, decree that within a limit of 
ten years this injurious filth shall be completely 
swept away. We further order the Council of 
State to consider means of prohibition both of 
growing the poppy and smoking the opium." 

The Council of State at once drew up regula- 
tions designed to carry out this decree. They 
were among others : 

That all opium-smokers be required to report 
and take out a license. 

Officials using the drug were divided into two 
classes. Young men must be cured of the habit 
within six months, while for old men no limit was 
fixed. But both classes, while under treatment, 
must furnish satisfactory substitutes, at their own 
expense, to attend to the duties of their office. 

All opium dens must be closed within six 
months, after which time no opium-pipes nor 
lamps may be either made or sold. Though 
shops for the sale of the drug may continue for 
ten years, the limit of the traffic. 



80 Court Life in China 

The government promises to provide medicine 
for the cure of the habit, and encourages the for- 
mation of anti-opium societies, but will not allow 
these societies to discuss other political matters. 

Next to China Great Britain is the party most 
affected by this movement towards reform. 
When this edict was issued Great Britain was 
shipping annually fifty thousand chests of opium 
to the Chinese market, but at once agreed that if 
China was sincere in her desire for reform, and 
cut off her own domestic productions at the rate 
of ten per cent, per annum, she would decrease 
her trade at a similar rate. It is unfortunate that 
the Empress Dowager should have died before 
this reform had been carried to a successful cul- 
mination, but whatever may be the result of the 
movement the fact and the credit of its initiation 
will ever belong to her. 

Such are some of the special reform measures 
instituted by the Empress Dowager, but in addi- 
tion to these she has seen to it that the Emperor's 
efforts to establish a Board of Railroads, a Board 
of Mines, educational institutions on the plans of 
those of the West, should all be carried out. She 
has not only done away with the old system of 
examinations, but has introduced a new scheme 
by which all those who have graduated from 
American or European colleges may obtain 
Chinese degrees and be entitled to hold office 
under the government, by passing satisfactory 



The Empress Dowager — As a Reformer 81 

examinations, not a small part of which is the 
diploma or diplomas which they hold. Such an 
examination has already been held and a large 
number of Western graduates, most of them 
Christian, were given the Chu-jen or Han-lin 
degrees. 



VI 

The Empress Dowager — As an Artist 



There is no genre that the Chinese artist has not at- 
tempted. They have treated in turn mythological, relig- 
ious and historical subjects of every kind ; they have 
painted scenes of daily familiar life, as well as those in- 
spired by poetry and romance; sketched still life, land- 
scapes and portraits. Their highest achievements, perhaps, 
have been in landscapes, which reveal a passionate love for 
nature, and show with how delicate a charm, how sincere 
and lively a poetic feeling, they have interpreted its every 
aspect. They have excelled too at all periods in the paint- 
ing of animals and birds, especially of birds and flying in- 
sects in conjunction with flowers. 

— S. W. Bus he 11 in " Chinese Art." 



VI 

THE EMPRESS DOWAGER— AS AN ARTIST 

ONE day the head eunuch from the palace 
of the Princess Shun called at our home 
to ask Mrs. Headland to go and see the 
Princess. While sitting in my study and look- 
ing at the Chinese paintings hanging on the wall, 
two of which were from the brush of Her Majesty, 
he remarked : 

" You are fond of Chinese art ? " 

" I am indeed fond of it," I answered. 

" I notice you have some pictures painted by 
the Old Buddha," he continued, referring to the 
Empress Dowager by a name by which she is 
popularly known in Peking. 

" Yes, I have seven pictures from her brush," 
I answered. 

" Do you happen to have any from the brush 
of the Lady Miao, her painting teacher ? " he in- 
quired. 

" I am sorry to say I have not," I replied. " I 
have tried repeatedly to secure one, but thus 
far have failed. I have inquired at all the best 
stores on Liu Li Chang, the great curio street, 
but they have none, and cannot tell me where I 
can find one." 

85 



86 Court Life in China 

" No, you cannot get them in the stores ; she 
does not paint for the trade," he explained. 

" I am sorry," I continued, " for I should like 
very much to get one. I am told she is a very 
good artist." 

" Oh, yes, she paints very well," he went on 
in a careless way. " She lives over near our 
palace. We have a good many of her paintings. 
They are very easily gotten." 

" It may be easy for you to get them," I re- 
plied, " but it is no small task for me." 

" If you want some," he volunteered, " I'll get 
some for you." 

" That would be very kind of you," I answered, 
" but how would you undertake to get them? " 

" Oh, I would just steal a few and bring them 
over to you." 

It is hardly necessary to assure my readers as 
I did him that I could not approve of this method 
of obtaining paintings from the Lady Miao's 
brush. However he must have told the Princess 
of my desire, for the next time Mrs. Headland 
called at the palace the Princess entertained her 
by showing her a number of paintings by the 
Lady Miao, together with others from the brush 
of the Empress Dowager. 

" And these are really the work of Her 
Majesty ? " said Mrs. Headland with a rising in- 
flection. 

" Yes, indeed," replied the Princess. " I 



*i 



.-dr 



A 


-i 




3 


% 


3*7 


- 


,'3 


i__ 


•f 


[»VJ 


*f 



V 




- I> V. 




COCK AND BEETLE 

Done by the Empress Dowager's painting- teacher at the request of the 
Empress's sister and given as a present to Mrs. Headland 



The Empress Dowager — As an Artist 87 

watched her at work on them. They are 
genuine." 

It was some weeks thereafter that Mrs. Head- 
land was again invited to call and see the 
Princess, and to her surprise she was introduced 
to the Lady Miao, with whom and the Princess 
she spent a very pleasant social hour or two. 
When she was about to leave, the Princess, who 
is the youngest sister of the Empress Yehonala, 
brought out a picture of a cock about to catch 
a beetle, which she said she had asked Lady 
Miao to paint, and which she begged Mrs. 
Headland to receive as a present from the artist 
and herself. 

During the conversation Mrs. Headland re- 
marked that the Empress Dowager must have 
begun her study of art many years ago. 

" Yes," said Lady Miao. " We were both 
young when she began. Shortly after she was 
taken into the palace she began the study of 
books, and partly as a diversion, but largely out 
of her love for art, she took up the brush. She 
studied the old masters as they have been re- 
produced by woodcuts in books, and from the 
paintings that have been preserved in the palace 
collection, and soon she exhibited rare talent. I 
was then a young woman, my brothers were 
artists, my husband had passed away, and I 
was ordered to appear in the palace and work 
with her." 



88 Court Life in China 

" You are a Chinese, are you not, Lady 
Miao?" 

" Yes," she replied, " and as it has not been 
customary for Chinese ladies to appear at court 
during the present dynasty, I was allowed to 
unbind my feet, comb my hair in the Manchu 
style, and wear the gowns of her people." 

" And did you go into the palace every day ? " 

" When I was young I did. Ten Thousand 
Years " — another method of speaking of the 
Empress Dowager — " was very enthusiastic over 
her art work in those days, and often we spent a 
large part of the day either with our brushes, or 
studying the history of art, the examples in the 
books, or the works of the old masters in the 
gallery. One of her favourite presents to her 
friends, as you probably know, is a picture from 
her own brush, decorated with the impress of 
her great jade seal, the date, and an appropriate 
poem by one of the members of the College of 
Inscriptions. And no presents that she ever 
gives are prized more highly by the recipients 
than these paintings." 

I had seen pictures painted by Her Majesty 
decorating the walls of the palaces of several of 
the princes, as well as the homes of a number of 
my official friends. Some of them I thought 
very attractive, and they seemed to be well 
done. They were highly prized by their owners, 
but I was anxious to know what the Lady Miao 



The Empress Dowager — As an Artist 89 

thought of her ability as an artist, and so I 
asked : 

" Do you consider the Empress Dowager a 
good painter ? " 

" The Empress Dowager is a great woman," 
she answered. " Of course, as an artist, she is 
an amateur rather than a professional. Had she 
devoted herself wholly to art, hers would have 
been one of the great names among our artists. 
She wields her brush with a power and precision 
which only genius added to practice can give. 
She has a keen appreciation of art, and it is a 
pity that the cares of state might not have been 
borne by others, leaving her free to develop her 
instinct for art." 

The Empress Dowager kept eighteen court 
painters, selected from among the best artists 
of the country, and appointed by herself, whose 
whole duty it was to paint for her. They were 
divided into three groups, and each group of six 
persons was required to be on duty ten days of 
each month. As I was deeply interested in the 
study of Chinese art I became intimately ac- 
quainted with most of the court painters and 
knew the character of their work. The head of 
this group was Mr. Kuan. I called on him one 
day, knowing that he was not well enough to be 
on duty in the palace, and I found him hard at 
work. Like the small boy who told his mother 
that he was too sick to go to school but not sick 



90 Court Life in China 

enough to go to bed, so he assured me that 
his troubles were not such as to prevent his 
working, but only such as make it impossible 
for him to appear at court. Incidentally I learned 
that the drain on his purse from the squeezes to 
the eunuchs aggravated his disease. 

" When Her Majesty excused me from ap- 
pearing at the palace," he explained, " she 
required that I paint for her a minimum of sixty 
pictures a year, to be sent in about the time of 
the leading feasts. These she decorates with 
her seals, and with appropriate sentiments 
written by members of the College of Inscrip- 
tions, and she gives them, as she gives her own, 
as presents during the feasts." Mr. Kuan and I 
became intimate friends and he painted three pic- 
tures which he presented to me for my collection. 

One day another of the court painters came to 
call on me and during the conversation told me 
that he was painting a picture of the Empress 
Dowager as the goddess of mercy. Up to that 
time I had not been accustomed to think of her 
as a goddess of mercy, but he told me that she 
not infrequently copied the gospel of that god- 
dess with her own pen, had her portrait painted 
in the form of the goddess which she used as a 
frontispiece, bound the whole up in yellow silk 
or satin and gave it as a present to her favourite 
officials. Of course I thought at once of my 
collection of paintings, and said : 




THE EMPRESS DOWAGER AS GODDESS 

OF MERCY 

Foreground and background painted by Court Artists 



The Empress Dowager — As an Artist 91 

" How much I should like to have a picture 
of the Empress Dowager as the goddess of 
mercy ! " 

" I'll paint one for you," said he. 

All this conversation I soon discovered was 
only a diplomatic preliminary to what he had 
really come to tell me, which was that he had 
been eating fish in the palace a few days before, 
and had swallowed a fish-bone which had un- 
fortunately stuck in his throat. He said that the 
court physicians had given him medicine to dis- 
solve the fish-bone, but it had not been effective ; 
he therefore wondered whether one of the physi- 
cians of my honourable country could remove it. 
I took him to my friend Dr. Hopkins who lived 
near by, and told him of the dilemma. The 
doctor set him down in front of the window, had 
him open his mouth, looked into his throat where 
he saw a small red spot, and with a pair of 
tweezers removed the offending fish-bone. And 
had it not been for this service on the part of 
Dr. Hopkins, I am afraid I should never have 
received the promised picture, for he hesitated 
as to the propriety of him, a court painter, doing 
pictures of Her Majesty for his friends. How- 
ever as he often thereafter found it necessary to 
call Mrs. Headland to minister to his wife and 
children he came to the conclusion that it was 
proper for him to do so, and one day he brought 
me the picture. 



g2 Court Life in China 

The Empress Dowager not only loved to be 
painted as the goddess of mercy, but she clothed 
herself in the garments suitable to that deity, 
dressed certain ladies of the court as her at- 
tendants, with the head eunuch Li Lien-ying as 
their protector, ordered the court artists to paint 
appropriate foreground and background and 
then called young Yii, her court photographer, 
to snap his camera and allow Old Sol the 
great artist of the universe with a pencil of his 
light to paint her as she was. 

One day while visiting a curio store on Liu Li 
Chang, the great book street of Peking, my at- 
tention was called by the dealer to four small 
paintings of peach blossoms in black and white, 
from the brush of the Empress Dowager. These 
pictures had been in the panels of the partition 
between two of the rooms of Her Majesty's 
apartments in the Summer Palace, and so I con- 
sidered myself fortunate in securing them. 

" You notice," said he, " that each section of 
these branches must be drawn by a single stroke 
of the brush. This is no easy task. She must 
be able to ink her brush in such a way as to give 
a clear outline of the limb, and at the same time 
to produce such shading as she may desire. 
Should her outline be defective, she dare not re- 
touch it ; should her shading be too heavy or 
insufficient, she cannot take from it and she may 
not add to it, as this would make it defective in 




SPRIGS OF PEACH BLOOM PAINTED BY 
THE EMPRESS DOWAGER 

With the date, and a short poem written by a member of the College 
of Inscriptions. The seal on top is that of her majesty 




ALSO PAINTED BY THE EMPRESS DOWAGER 
WITH POEM AND DATE 



The Empress Dowager — As an Artist 93 

the matter of caligraphy. A stroke once placed 
upon her paper, for they are done on paper, is 
there forever. This style of work is among the 
most difficult in Chinese art." 

After securing these paintings, I showed them 
to a number of the best artists of the present 
day in Peking, and they all pronounced them 
good specimens of plum blossom work in mono- 
chrome, and they agreed with Lady Miao, that 
if the Empress Dowager had given her whole 
time to painting she would have passed into his- 
tory as one of the great artists of the present 
dynasty. 

One day when one of her court painters called 
I showed him these pictures. He agreed with 
all the others as to the quality of her brush work, 
but called my attention to a diamond shaped 
twining of the branches in one of them. 

"That," said he, "is proof positive that it is 
her work." 

"Why?" I inquired. 

"Because a professional artist would never 
twine the twigs in that fashion." 

"And why not?" 

"They would not do it," he replied. "It is 
not artistic." 

" And why do not her friends call her attention 
to this fact ? " I inquired. 

" Who would do it ? " was his counter question. 



VII 
The Empress Dowager — As a Woman 



The first audience given by Her Imperial Majesty to the 
seven ladies of the Diplomatic Corps was sought and urged 
by the foreign ministers. After the troubles of 1900 and 
the return of the court, Her Majesty assumed a different 
attitude, and, of her own accord, issued many invitations 
for audiences, and these invitations were accepted. Then 
followed my tiffin to the court princesses and their tiffin 
in return. This opened the way for other princesses and 
wives of high officials to call, receive calls, to entertain 
and be entertained. In many cases arrangements were 
made through our mutual friend Mrs. Headland, an ac- 
cepted physician and beloved friend of many of the higher 
Chinese families; and through her innate tact, broad 
thought, and great love for the good she may do, I have 
been able to come into personal touch with many of these 
Chinese ladies. 

— Mrs. E. H. Conger in " Letters from China." 



VII 

THE EMPRESS DOWAGER— AS A WOMAN 

ALTHOUGH the great Dowager has 
passed away, it may be interesting to 
know something about her life and 
character as a woman as those saw her who 
came in contact with her in public and private 
audiences. In order to appreciate how quick 
she was to adopt foreign customs, let me give in 
some detail the difference in her table decora- 
tions at the earlier and later audiences as they 
have been related by my wife. 

" At the close of the formalities of our intro- 
duction to the Empress Dowager and the Em- 
peror at one of the first audiences, we, with the 
ladies of the court, repaired to the banqueting 
hall. After we were seated, each with a princess 
beside her, the great Dowager appeared. We 
rose and remained standing while she took her 
place at the head of the table, with the Emperor 
standing at her left a little distance behind her. 
As she sat down she requested us to be seated, 
though the princesses and the Emperor all re- 
mained standing, it being improper for them to 
sit in the presence of Her Majesty. Long-robed 
eunuchs then appeared with an elaborate Chinese 

97 



98 Court Life in China 

banquet, and the one who served the Empress 
Dowager always knelt when presenting her with 
a dish. 

" After we had eaten for some little time, the 
doyen asked if the princesses might not be 
seated. The Empress Dowager first turned to 
the Emperor, and said, 'Your Majesty, please 
be seated ' ; then turning to the princesses and 
waving her hand, she told them to sit down. 
They sat down in a timid, rather uncomfortable 
way on the edge of the chair, but did not pre- 
sume to touch any of the food. 

"The conversation ran upon various topics, 
and, among others, the Boxer troubles. One of 
the ladies wore a badge. The Empress Dowager 
noticing it, asked what it meant. 

" ' Your Majesty,' was the reply, ' this was pre- 
sented to me by my Emperor because I was 
wounded in the Boxer insurrection.' 

" The Empress Dowager took the hands of this 
lady in both her own, and as the tears stood in 
her eyes, she said : 

"'I deeply regret all that occurred during 
those troublous times. The Boxers for a time 
overpowered the government, and even brought 
their guns in and placed them on the walls of the 
palace. Such a thing shall never occur again.' 

" The table was covered with brilliantly col- 
oured oilcloth, and was without tablecloth or 
napkins properly so called, but we used as nap- 



The Empress Dowager — As a Woman 99 

kins square, coloured bits of calico about the size 
of a large bandana handkerchief. There were 
no flowers, the table decorations consisting of 
large stands of cakes and fruit. I speak of this 
because it was all changed at future audiences, 
when the table was spread with snow-white 
cloths, and smiled with its load of most gorgeous 
flowers. Especially was this true after the lunch- 
eons given to the princesses and ladies of the 
court by Mrs. Conger at the American legation, 
showing that the eyes of these ladies were open 
to receive whatever suggestions might come to 
them even in so small a matter as the spreading 
and decoration of a table. The banquets there- 
after were made up of alternating courses of 
Chinese and foreign food. 

" With but one exception, the Empress Dow- 
ager thereafter never appeared at table with her 
guests. But at the close of the formal audiences, 
after descending from the throne, and speaking to 
those whom she had formerly met, she requested 
her guests to enter the banquet hall and enjoy 
the feast with the princesses, saying that the cus- 
toms of her country forbade their being seated or 
partaking of food if she were present. After the 
banquet, however, the Empress Dowager always 
appeared and conversed cordially with her 
guests. 

" Her failure to appear at table may have been 
influenced by the following incident : One of the 



loo Court Life in China 

leading lady guests, anxious, no doubt, to obtain 
a unique curio, requested the Empress Dowager 
to present her with the bowl from which Her 
Majesty was eating — a bowl which was different 
from those used by her guests, as the dishes 
from which her food was served were never the 
same as those used by others at the table ! 

" After an instant's hesitation she turned to a 
eunuch and said : 

" ' We cannot give her one bowl [the Chinese 
custom being always to give things in pairs] ; 
go and prepare her two.' 

"Then, turning to her guests, she continued 
apologetically : 

" ' I should be glad to give bowls to each of 
you, but the Foreign Office has requested me 
not to give presents at this audience.' It had 
been her custom to give each of her guests some 
small gift with her own hands and afterwards to 
send presents by her eunuchs to their homes. 

" On another occasion the lady referred to 
above took an ornament from a cabinet and was 
carrying it away when the person in charge of 
these things requested that it be restored, saying 
that she was responsible for everything in the 
room and would be punished if anything were 
missing. 

" The above incidents do not stand alone. It 
was not uncommon for some of the Continental 
guests, in the presence of the court ladies, to 



The Empress Dowager — As a Woman 101 

make uncomplimentary remarks about the food, 
which was Chinese, and often not very palatable 
to the foreigner. These remarks, of course, were 
not supposed to be understood, though the Em- 
press Dowager always had her own interpreter 
at table. One often felt that some of these ladies, 
in their efforts to see all and get all, forgot what 
was due their own country as well as their im- 
perial hostess. 

" One can understand the enormity of such an 
offense in a court the etiquette of which is so ex- 
acting that none of her own subjects ever dared 
appear in her presence until they had been 
properly instructed in court etiquette in the 
' Board of Rites,' a course of instruction which 
may extend over a period of from a week to six 
months. These breaches of politeness on the 
part of these foreign ladies may have been over- 
looked by Her Majesty and the princesses, but, 
if so, it was on the old belief that all outside of 
China were barbarians. 

" All the ladies who attended these audiences, 
however, were not of this character. There were 
those who realized the importance of those oc- 
casions in the opening up of China, and were 
scrupulous in their efforts to conform to the most 
exacting customs of the court. And who can 
doubt that the warm friendship which the Em- 
press Dowager conceived for Mrs. Conger, the 
wife of our American minister, who did more 



102 Court Life in China 

than any other person ever did, or ever can do, 
towards the opening up of the Chinese court to 
the people of the West, was because of her ap- 
preciation of the fact that Mrs. Conger was anx- 
ious to show the Empress Dowager the honour 
due to her position. 

" It was in her private audiences that this great 
woman's tact, womanliness, fascination and charm 
as a hostess appeared. Taking her guest by the 
hand, she would ask in the most solicitous way 
whether we were not tired with our journey to 
the palace ; she would deplore the heat in sum- 
mer or the cold in winter ; she would express her 
anxiety lest the refreshments might not have been 
to our taste ; she would tell us in the sincerest ac- 
cents that it was a propitious fate that had made 
our paths meet ; and she would charm each of 
her guests, even though they had been formerly 
prejudiced against her, with little separate atten- 
tions, which exhibited her complete power as a 
hostess. 

"When opportunity offered, she was always 
anxious to learn of foreign ways and institutions. 
On one occasion while in the theatre, she called 
me to her side, and, giving me a chair, inquired 
at length into the system of female education in 
America. 

"'I have heard,' she said, ' that in your hon- 
ourable country all the girls are taught to read.' 

" ' Quite so, Your Majesty.' 



The Empress Dowager — As a Woman 103 

"'And are they taught the same branches of 
study as the boys ? ' 

" ' In the public schools they are/ 

" ' I wish very much that the girls in China 
might also be taught, but the people have great 
difficulty in educating their boys.' 

" I then explained in a few words our public- 
school system, to which she replied : 

" ' The taxes in China are so heavy at present 
that it would be impossible to add another ex- 
pense such as this would be.' 

"It was not long thereafter, however, before 
an edict was issued commending female educa- 
tion, and at the present time hundreds of girls' 
schools have been established by private persons 
both in Peking and throughout the empire. 

" On another occasion, while the ladies were 
having refreshments, the Empress Dowager re- 
quested me to come to her private apartments, 
and while we two were alone together, with only 
a eunuch standing by fanning with a large pea- 
cock-feather fan, she asked me to tell her about 
the church. It was apparent from the beginning 
of her conversation that she made no distinction 
between Roman Catholics and Protestants, call- 
ing them all the Chiao. I explained to her that 
the object of the church was the intellectual, 
moral, and spiritual development of the people, 
making them both better sons and better sub- 
jects. 



104 Court Life in China 

" Few women are more superstitious than the 
Empress Dowager. Her whole life was influ- 
enced by her belief in fate, charms, good and 
evil spirits, gods and demons. 

" When it was first proposed that she have her 
portrait painted for the St. Louis Exposition, she 
was dumfounded. After a long conversation, 
however, in which Mrs. Conger explained that 
portraits of many of the rulers of Europe would 
be there, including a portrait of Queen Victoria, 
and that such a painting would in a way coun- 
teract the false pictures of her that had gone 
abroad, she said that she would consult with 
Prince Ching about the matter. This looked 
very much as though it had been tabled. Not 
long thereafter, however, she sent word to Mrs. 
Conger, asking that Miss Carl be invited to come 
to Peking and paint her portrait. 

"We all know how this portrait had to be be- 
gun on an auspicious day ; how a railroad had 
to be built to the Foreign Office rather than have 
the portrait carried out on men's shoulders, as 
though she were dead ; how she celebrated her 
seventieth birthday when she was sixty-nine, to 
defeat the gods and prevent their bringing such 
a calamity during the celebration as had occurred 
when she was sixty, when the Japanese war dis- 
turbed her festivities. On her clothes she wore 
the ideographs for ' Long Life ' and ' Happiness,' 
and most of the presents she gave were emblem- 




> 
< 

O 

H 

D- 
O 

< 
fag 

U H 



w 52 

co O 

fa CO 

^ 3 

w o 

Q & 
O 

en fa 
co 

fa O 

fa 2 

fa !— ' 

fa 
K 
H 

fa 
O 



< 



The Empress Dowager — As a Woman 105 

atic of some good fortune. Her palace was deco- 
rated with great plates of apples, which by a play- 
on words mean ' Peace,' and with plates of 
peaches, which mean 'Longevity.' On her 
person she wore charms, one of which she took 
from her neck and placed on the neck of Mrs. 
Conger when she was about to leave China, say- 
ing that she hoped it might protect her during 
her journey across the ocean, as it had protected 
herself during her wanderings in 1900, and she 
would not allow any one to appear in her pres- 
ence who had any semblance of mourning about 
her clothing. 

" It is a well-known fact that no Manchu woman 
ever binds her feet, and the Empress Dowager 
was as much opposed to foot-binding as any 
other living woman. Nevertheless, she would 
not allow a subject to presume to suggest to 
her ways in which she should interfere in the 
social customs of the Chinese, as one of her 
subjects did. This lady was the wife of a Chi- 
nese minister to a foreign country, and had 
adopted both for herself and her daughters the 
most ultra style of European dress. She one 
day said to Her Majesty, ' The bound feet of the 
Chinese woman make us the laughing-stock of 
the world.' 

" ' I have heard,' said the Empress Dowager, 
1 that the foreigners have a custom which is not 
above reproach, and now since there are no out- 



106 Court Life in China 

siders here, I should like to see what the foreign 
ladies use in binding their waist.' 

" The lady was very stout, and had the appear- 
ance of an hour-glass, and turning to her daugh- 
ter, a tall and slender maiden, she said : 

" ' Daughter, you show Her Majesty.' 

" The young lady demurred until finally the 
Empress Dowager said : 

" ' Do you not realize that a request coming 
from me is the same as a command ? ' 

" After having had her curiosity satisfied, she 
sent for the Grand Secretary and ordered that 
proper Manchu outfits be secured for the lady's 
daughters, saying : 

" ' It is truly pathetic what foreign women have 
to endure. They are bound up with steel bars 
until they can scarcely breathe. Pitiable ! Pit- 
iable ! ' 

" The following day this young lady did not 
appear at court, and the Empress Dowager asked 
her mother the reason of her absence. 

" ' She is ill to-day,' the mother replied. 

" ' I am not surprised,' replied Her Majesty, 
' for it must require some time after the bandages 
have been removed before she can again com- 
press herself into the same proportions,' indica- 
ting that the Empress Dowager supposed that 
foreign women slept with their waists bound, just 
as the Chinese women do with their feet." 

The first winter I spent in China, twenty years 



The Empress Dowager — As a Woman 107 

ago, was one of great excitement in Peking. The 
time of the regency of the Empress Dowager for 
the boy-emperor had ended. I have explained 
how a prince is not allowed to marry a princess 
because she is his relative, or even a commoner 
his cousin for the same reason. That is the rule. 
But rules were made to be broken, and when the 
time came for Kuang Hsu's betrothal the Em- 
press Dowager decided to marry this son of her 
sister to the daughter of her brother. It mattered 
not that the young man was opposed to the 
match and wanted another for his wife. The 
Empress Dowager had set her heart upon this 
union, and she would not allow her plans to be 
frustrated, so an edict was issued that all people 
should remain within their homes on a certain 
night, for the bride was to be taken in her red 
chair from her father's home to the palace. So 
that in this as in all other things her will was law 
for all those about her. 

She was a bit below the average height, but 
she wore shoes, in the centre of whose soles there 
were — heels, shall we call them ? — six inches high. 
These, together with her Manchu garments, 
which hang from the shoulders, gave her a tall 
and stately appearance and made her seem, as 
she was, every inch an empress. Her figure was 
perfect, her carriage quick and graceful, and she 
lacked nothing physically to make her a splendid 
type of womanhood and ruler. Her features 



108 Court Life in China 

were more vivacious and pleasing than they were 
really beautiful ; her complexion was of an olive 
tint, and her face illumined by orbs of jet half 
hidden by dark lashes, behind which lurked the 
smiles of favour or the lightning flashes of anger. 

When seated upon the throne she was majesty 
itself, but the moment she stepped down from the 
august seat, and took one's hand in both of hers, 
saying with the most amiable of smiles : " What 
a kind fate it is that has allowed you to come and 
see me again. I hope you are not over-weary 
with the long journey," one felt that she was, 
above all, a woman, a companion, a friend — yet 
for all that the mistress of every situation, whether 
diplomatic, business, or social. 

I wish her mental characteristics could be de- 
scribed as completely as Japanese and other 
photographers have given us pictures of her per- 
son. But perhaps if this were possible she would 
seem less interesting. And it may be that in the 
relation of these few incidents of her career there 
may have been revealed something of the patriot- 
ism, the statesmanship, the imperious will, and 
the ambitions that brought about the reestablish- 
ment and the continuation of the dynasty of her 
people. We have seen how the enemies of her 
country fell before her sword. Dangerous states- 
men fell before her pen, and if they were fortu- 
nate enough to rise again with all their honour 
it was to be divested of all their former power. 



The Empress Dowager — As a Woman 109 

Every obstacle in her path was overcome either 
by diplomacy or by force. 

The Empress Dowager has no double in 
Chinese history, if indeed in the history of the 
world. She not only guided the ship of state 
during the last half century, but she guided it 
well, and put into operation all the greatest re- 
forms that have ever been thought of by Cninese 
statesmen. Compared with her own people, she 
stands head and shoulders above any other 
woman of the Mongol race. And what shall we 
say of her compared with the great women of 
other races ? In strength of character and ability 
she will certainly not suffer in any comparison 
that can be made. We cannot, therefore, help 
admiring that young girl, who formerly ran er- 
rands for her mother who, being made the con- 
cubine of an emperor, became the mother of an 
emperor, the wife of an emperor, the maker of 
an emperor, the dethroner of an emperor, and the 
ruler of China for nearly half a century — all this 
in a land where woman has no standing or 
power. Is it too much to say that she was the 
greatest woman of the last half century ? 



VIII 



Kuang Hsu — His Self-Development 



The Emperor Kuang Hsu is slight and delicate, almost 
childish in appearance, of pale olive complexion, and 
with great, melancholy eyes. There is a gentleness in his 
expression that speaks rather of dreaming than of the 
power to turn dreams into acts. It is strange to find a 
personality so etherial among the descendants of the 
Mongol hordes ; yet the Emperor Kuang Hsu might sit as 
a model for some Oriental saint on the threshold of the 
highest beatitude. 

— Charles Johnston in " The Crisis in China" 



VIII 

KUANG HSU— HIS SELF-DEVELOPMENT 

ON the night that the son of the Empress 
Dowager "ascended upon the dragon 
to be a guest on high," two sedan 
chairs were borne out of the west gate of the 
Forbidden City, through the Imperial City, and 
into the western part of the Tartar City, in one 
of which sat the senior Empress and in the 
other the Empress-mother. The streets were 
dimly lighted, but the chairs, each carried by 
four bearers, were preceded and followed by 
outriders bearing large silk lanterns in which 
were tallow-candles, while a heavy cart with 
relays of bearers brought up the rear. The 
errand upon which they were bent was an im- 
portant one — the making of an emperor — for by 
the death of Tung Chih, the throne, for the first 
time in the history of the dynasty, was left with- 
out an heir. Their destination was the home of 
the Seventh Prince, the younger brother of their 
husband, to whom as we have already said the 
Empress Dowager had succeeded in marrying 
her younger sister, who was at that time the 
happy mother of two sons. 

113 



114 Court Life in China 

She took the elder of these, a not very sturdy- 
boy of three years and more, from his comfort- 
able bed to make him emperor, and one can 
imagine they hear him whining with a half-sleepy 
yawn : "I don't want to be emperor. I want 
to sleep." But she bundled little Tsai Tien up 
in comfortable wraps, took him out of a happy 
home, from a loving father and mother, and a 
jolly little baby brother, — out of a big beautiful 
world, where he would have freedom to go and 
come at will, toys to play with, children to con- 
tend with him in games, and everything in a 
home of wealth that is dear to the heart of a 
child. And for what? She folded him in her 
arms, adopted him as her own son, and carried 
him into the Forbidden — and no doubt to him 
forbidding — City, where his world was one mile 
square, without freedom, without another child 
within its great bare walls, where he was the one 
lone, solitary man among thousands of eunuchs 
and women. The next morning when the im- 
perial clan assembled to condole with her on the 
death of her son, she bore little Tsai Tien into 
their midst declaring : " Here is your em- 
peror." 

At that time there were situated on Legation 
Street, in Peking, two foreign stores that had 
been opened without the consent of the Chinese 
government, for in those days the capital had 
not been opened to foreign trade. As the stores 



Kuang Hsu — His Self-Development 115 

were small, and in such close proximity to the 
various legations, the most of whose supplies 
they furnished, they seem to have been too un- 
important to attract official attention, though 
they were destined to have a mighty influence 
on the future of China. One of them was kept 
by a Dane, who sold foreign toys, notions, dry- 
goods and groceries such as might please the 
Chinese or be of use to the scanty European 
population of the great capital. By chance 
some of the eunuchs from the imperial palace, 
wandering about the city in search of something 
to please little Tsai Tien, dropped into this store 
on Legation Street and bought some of these 
foreign toys for his infant Majesty. 

They had already ransacked the city for 
Chinese toys. They had gone to every fair, 
visited every toy-shop, called upon every 
private dealer, and paid high prices for samples 
of their best work made especially for the royal 
child. There were crowing cocks and cackling 
hens ; barking dogs and crying infants ; music 
balls and music carts; horns, drums, diabolos 
and tops ; there were gingham dogs and calico 
cats ; camels, elephants and fierce tigers ; and a 
thousand other toys, if only he had had other 
children to share them with him. But none of 
them pleased him. They lacked that subtile 
something which was necessary to minister to 
the peculiar genius of the child. 



li6 Court Life in China 

Among the foreign toys there were some in 
which there was concealed a secret spring which 
seemed to impart life to the otherwise dead 
plaything. Wind them up and they would 
move of their own energy. This was what the 
boy needed, — -something to appeal to that ma- 
chine-loving disposition which nature had given 
him, and Budge and Toddy were never more 
curious to know " what made the wheels go 
round " than was little Tsai Tien. He played 
with them as toys until overcome by curiosity, 
when, like many another child, he tore them 
apart and discovered the secret spring. This 
was as much of a revelation to the eunuchs as 
to the child, and they went and bought other 
toys of a more curious pattern, and a more 
intricate design, and it was not long until, at the 
instigation of the enterprising Dane, the toy- 
shops of Europe were manufacturing play- 
things specially designed to please the almond- 
eyed baby Emperor in the yellow-tiled palace in 
Peking. 

As the child grew the business of the Dane 
shopkeeper increased. His stock became larger 
and more varied, and Tsai Tien continued to be 
a profitable customer. There were music boxes 
and music carts — real music carts, not like those 
from the Chinese shops, — trains of cars, wheeled 
boats, striking clocks and Swiss watches which, 
when the stem was pulled, would strike the hour 



Kuang Hsu — His Self-Development 117 

or half or quarter, and all these were bought in 
turn by the eunuchs and taken into the palace. 
As the Emperor grew to boyhood the Danish 
shopkeeper supplied toys suitable to his years 
from his inexhaustible shelves, until all the most 
intricate and wonderful toys of Europe, suitable 
for a boy, had passed through the hands of 
Kuang Hsu, — " continued brilliancy," as his 
name implied — and he seemed to be making 
good the meaning of his name. 

We would not lead any one to believe that 
Kuang Hsu was an ideal child. He was not. 
If we may credit the reports that came from the 
palace in those days, he had a temper of his own. 
If he were denied anything he wanted, he would 
lie down on his baby back on the dirty ground 
and kick and scream and literally " raise the 
dust" until he got it. My wife tells me that not 
infrequently when she called at the Chinese 
homes, and they set before her a dish of which 
she was especially fond, and she had eaten of it 
as much as she thought she ought, the ladies 
would ask in a good-natured way in reply to 
some of her remarks about her voracious appetite, 
" Shall we get down and knock our heads on the 
floor, and beg you not to eat too much, and 
make yourself sick, like the eunuchs do to the 
Emperor? " There is nothing to wonder at that 
Kuang Hsu, without parental restraint, and 
fawned upon by cringing eunuchs and serv- 



ll8 Court' Life in China 

ing maids, should have been a spoiled child ; 
the wonder is that he was not worse than he 
was. 

One day in 1901 while the court was absent at 
Hsian, and the front gate of the Forbidden City- 
was guarded by our " boys in blue," I obtained a 
pass and visited the imperial palace. The apart- 
ments of the Emperor consisted of a series of one- 
story Chinese buildings, with paper windows 
around a large central pane of glass, tile roof and 
brick floor. The east part of the building ap- 
peared to be the living-room, about twenty by 
twenty-five feet. The window on the south side 
extended the entire length of the room, and was 
filled with clocks from end to end. There were 
clocks of every description from the finest French 
cloisonne to the most intricate cuckoo clocks 
from which a bird hopped forth to announce the 
hour, and each ticking its own time regardless 
of every other. Tables were placed in various 
parts of the room, on each of which were one, 
two or three clocks. Swiss watches of the most 
curious and unique designs hung about the walls. 
Two sofas sat back to back in the centre of the 
room, and a beautiful little gilt desk on which 
was the most wonderful of all his clocks, with 
several large foreign chairs upholstered in plush 
and velvet, completed the furniture. I sat down 
in one of these chairs to rest, for it was a hot 
summer day, and immediately there proceeded 



Kuang Hsu — His Self-Development 119 

from beneath me sweet strains of music from a 
box concealed beneath the cushion. It was not 
only a surprise, it was soothing and restful ; and 
I was prepared to see an electric fan pop out of 
somewhere and fan me to sleep. It was really 
an Oriental fairy tale of an apartment. 

As Kuang Hsu grew to boyhood he heard that 
out in this great wonderful world, which he had 
never seen except with the eyes of a child, there 
was a method of sending messages to distant 
cities and provinces with the rapidity of a flash 
of lightning. For centuries he and his ancestors 
had been sending their edicts, and their Peking 
Gazette or court newspaper — the oldest journal 
in the world — by runner, or relays of post horses, 
and the possibility of sending them by a light- 
ning flash appealed to him. He believed in do- 
ing things, and, as we shall see later, he wanted 
to do them as rapidly as they could be done. 
He therefore ordered that a telegraph outfit be 
secured for him, which he " played with " as he 
had done with his most ingenious toys, and the 
telegraph was soon established for court use 
throughout the empire. 

One day a number of officials came to us at 
the Peking University and in the course of a 
conversation they said : 

"The Emperor has heard that the foreigners 
have invented a talk box. Is that true ? " 

" Quite true," we replied, " and as we have one 



120 



Court Life in China 



in the physical laboratory of the college we will 
let you see it." 

We had one of the old Edison phonographs 
which worked with a pedal, and looked very 
much like a sewing-machine, and we took them 
to the laboratory, allowed one of them to talk 
into it, and then set the machine to repeating 
what had been told it. The officials were de- 
lighted and it was not long until they again ap- 
peared and insisted on buying it as a present for 
the Emperor, for in this way better than any other 
they might hope to obtain official recognition and 
position. 

The Emperor then heard that the foreigners had 
invented a " fire-wheel cart," but whether he had 
ever been informed that they had built a small 
railroad at Wu-Sung near Shanghai, and that the 
Chinese had bought it, and then torn it up and 
thrown it into the river we cannot say. There 
are many things the officials and people do which 
never reach the imperial ears. However that 
may be, when Kuang Hsu heard of the railroad 
and the carts that were run by fire, he wanted one, 
and he would not be satisfied until they had built 
a narrow gauge railroad along the west shore of 
the lotus lake in the Forbidden City, and the fac- 
tories of Europe had made two small cars and an 
engine on which he could take the court ladies 
for a ride on this unusual merry-go-round. The 
road and the cars and the engine were still there 



Kuang Hsu — His Self-Development 121 

when I visited the Forbidden City in 1901, but they 
were carried away to Europe by some of the allies 
as precious bits of loot, before the court returned. 

Not long after he had heard of the railroads, 
he was told that the foreigners also had "fire- 
wheel boats." Of course he wanted some, and 
as I crossed the beautiful marble bridge that spans 
the lotus lake, I saw anchored near by three 
small steam launches which had evidently been 
used a good deal. I saw similar launches in the 
lake at the Summer Palace, and was told that in 
the play days of his boyhood, Kuang Hsu would 
have these launches hitched to the imperial 
barges and take the ladies of the court for pleas- 
ure trips about the lake in the cool of the 
summer evenings, as the Empress Dowager did 
her foreign visitors in later times. 

The Emperor in those days was on the lookout 
for everything foreign that was of a mechanical 
nature. Indeed every invention interested him. 
In this respect he was diametrically opposite to 
the genius of the whole Chinese people. Their 
faces had ever been turned backward, and their 
highest hopes were that they might approximate 
the golden ages of the past, and be equal in 
virtue to their ancestors. This feeling was so 
strong that a hundred years before he mounted 
the throne, his forefather, Chien Lung, when he 
had completed his cycle of sixty years as a ruler, 
vacated in favour of his son lest he should reign 



122 Court Life in China 

longer than his grandfather. Kuang Hsu was 
therefore the first occupant of the dragon throne 
whose face was turned to the future, and whose 
chief aim was to possess and to master every 
method that had enabled the peoples of the West 
to humiliate his people. 

When he heard that the foreigners had a method 
of talking to a distance of ten, twenty, fifty or 
five hundred miles, he did not say like the old 
farmer is reported to have said, — " It caint be 
trew, because my son John kin holler as loud 
as any man in all this country, an' he caint be 
heerd mor'n two miles." Kuang Hsu believed 
it, and at once ordered that a telephone be 
secured for him. 

In 1894 the Christian women of China decided 
to present a New Testament to the Empress 
Dowager on her sixtieth birthday which occurred 
the following year. New type was prepared, the 
finest foreign paper secured, and the book was 
made after the best style of the printer's art, 
with gilt borders, gilt edges, and bound in silver 
of an embossed bamboo pattern and encased in 
a silver box. It was then enclosed in a red plush 
box, — red being the colour indicating happiness, 
— which was in turn encased in a beautifully 
carved teak-wood box, and this was enclosed in 
an ordinary box and taken by the English and 
American ministers to the Foreign Office to be 
sent in to Her Majesty 



Kuang Hsu — His Self-Development .123 

The next day the Emperor sent to the American 
Bible Society for copies of the Old and New Testa- 
ments, such as were being sold to his people. A 
few days thereafter a Chinese friend — a horticul- 
turist and gardener who went daily to the 
palace with flowers and vegetables — came to 
me in confidence as though bearing an impor- 
tant secret, and said : 

" Something of unusual importance is taking 
place in the palace." 

" Indeed ? " said I ; " what makes you think 
so?" 

" Heretofore when I have gone into the 
palace," said he, " the eunuchs have treated me 
with indifference. Yesterday they sat down and 
talked in a most familiar and friendly way, ask- 
ing me all about Christianity. I told them what 
I could and they continued their conversation 
until long after noon. I finally became so hungry 
that I arose to come home. They urged me to 
stay, bringing in a feast, and inviting me to dine 
with them, and they kept me there till evening. 
One of them told me that the Emperor is study- 
ing the Gospel of Luke." 

" How does he know that ? " I inquired. 

" That is what I asked him," he answered, 
" and he told me that he is one of the Emperor's 
private servants, and that His Majesty has a part 
of the Gospel copied in large characters on a sheet 
of paper each day, which he spreads out on the 



124 Court Life in China 

table before him, and this eunuch, standing be- 
hind his chair, can read what he is studying." 

On further inquiry I discovered that there was 
no other way that the eunuch could have learned 
about the Gospel, except in the way indicated. 
This man was invited to dine with the eunuchs 
day after day until he had told them all he knew 
about Christianity, after which they requested 
him to bring in the pastor of the church of which 
he was a member, and who was one of my 
former pupils, to dine with them and tell them 
more about the Gospel. The pastor hesitated to 
accept the invitation, but as it was repeated day 
after day, he finally accompanied the horticul- 
turist. 

When offered wine at dinner the pastor re- 
fused it, at which the eunuch remarked : " Oh, 
yes, I have heard that you Christians do not 
drink wine," and like a polite host, the wine was 
put aside and none was drunk at the dinner. 
During the afternoon they took their guests to 
visit some of the imperial buildings, advanced 
the sum of three hundred dollars to the horti- 
culturist to enlarge his plant, and gave various 
presents to the pastor. 

It must not be inferred from this that the 
Emperor was becoming a Christian. Very far 
from it, though the interest he took in the Chris- 
tian doctrine set the people to studying about it, 
not only in Peking but throughout many of the 



Kuang Hsii — His Self-Development 125 

provinces, as was indicated at the time by the 
number of Christian books sold. As early as 
1 89 1 he issued a strong edict ordering the pro- 
tection of the missionaries in which he made 
the following statement : " The religions of the 
West have for their object the inculcation of 
virtue, and, though our people become con- 
verted, they continue to be Chinese subjects. 
There is no reason why there should not be 
harmony between the people and the adherents 
of foreign religions." The Chinese reported 
that he sometimes examined the eunuchs, li- 
ning them up in classes and catechising them 
from the books read. 

One day three of the eunuchs called on me 
with this same horticulturist, for the purpose no 
doubt of seeing a foreigner, and to get a glimpse 
of the home in which he lived. One of them 
was younger than the other two and above the 
average intelligence of his class. A few days 
later the horticulturist told me a story which 
illustrates a phase of the Emperor's character 
which we have already hinted at — his impulsive 
nature and ungovernable temper. He had 
ordered a number of the eunuchs to appear 
before him, all of whom except this young man 
were unable to come, because engaged in other 
duties. When the eunuch got down on his hands 
and knees to kotow or knock his head to His 
Majesty, the latter kicked him in the mouth, 



126 Court Life in China 

cutting his lip and otherwise injuring him, and 
my informant added : 

"What kind of a man is that to govern a 
country, a man who punishes those who obey 
his orders ? " Indeed there was a good deal of 
feeling among the Chinese at that time that the 
Empress Dowager ought to punish the Emperor 
as a good mother does a bad child, though in 
the light of all the other things he did, he was to 
be pitied more than blamed for a disposition thus 
inherited and developed. 

It was about this time he began the study of 
English. He ordered that two teachers be ap- 
pointed, and contrary to all former customs he 
allowed them to sit rather than kneel while they 
taught him. At the time they were selected I 
was exchanging lessons in English for Chinese 
with the grandson of one of these teachers, and 
learned a good deal about the progress the 
young man was making. He was in such a 
hurry to begin that he could not. wait to send 
to England or America for books, and so the 
officials visited the various schools and missions 
in search of proper primers for a beginner. 
When they visited us we made a thorough 
search and finally Dr. Marcus L. Taft discovered 
an attractively illustrated primer which he had 
taken to China with him for his little daughter 
Frances, and this was sent to Kuang Hsu. 

One day a eunuch called on me saying that 



Kuang Hsu — His Self-Development 127 

the Emperor had learned that the various institu- 
tions of learning, educational associations, tract 
and other societies had published a number of 
books in Chinese which they had translated from 
the European languages. I was at that time the 
custodian of two or three of these societies and 
had a great variety of Chinese books in my 
possession. I therefore sent him copies of our 
astronomy, geology, zoology, physiology and 
various other scientific books which I was at 
that time teaching in the university. 

The next day he called again, accompanied 
by a coolie who brought me a present of a ham 
cooked at the imperial kitchen, together with 
boxes of fruit and cakes, which, not being a man 
of large appetite, I thanked him for, tipped the 
coolie, and after he had gone, turned them over 
to our servants, who assured me that imperial 
meat was very palatable. Day after day for six 
weeks this eunuch visited me, and would never 
leave until I had found some new book for His 
Majesty. They might be literary, scientific or 
religious works, and he made no distinction be- 
tween the books of any sect or society, institution 
or body, but with an equal zeal he sought them 
all. I was sometimes reduced to a sheet tract, 
and finally I was forced to take my wife's Chinese 
medical books out of her private library and send 
them in to the Emperor. I learned that other 
eunuchs were visiting other persons in charge of 



128 Court Life in China 

other books, and that at this time Kuang Hsu 
bought every book that had been translated from 
any European language and published in the 
Chinese. 

One day the eunuch saw my wife's bicycle 
standing on the veranda and said : 
" What kind of a cart is that ? " 
" That is a self-moving cart," I answered. 
" How do you ride it ? " he inquired. 
I took the bicycle off the veranda, rode about 
the court a time or two, while he gazed at me 
with open mouth, and when I stopped he ejacu- 
lated : 

"That's queer ; why doesn't it fall down?" 
"When a thing's moving," I answered, "it 
can't fall down," which might apply to other 
things than bicycles. 

The next day when he called he said : 
" The Emperor would like that bicycle," and my 
wife allowed him to take it in to Kuang Hsu, and 
it was not long thereafter until it was reported 
that the Emperor had been trying to ride the 
bicycle, that his queue had become entangled in 
the rear wheel, and that he had had a not very 
royal tumble, and had given it up, — as many 
another one has done. 



IX 

Kuang Hsu — As Emperor and Reformer 



In 1 89 1 the present Emperor Kuang Hsu issued a very 
strong edict commanding good treatment of the mission- 
aries. He therein made the following statement : " The 
religions of the West have for their object the inculcation 
of virtue, and, though our people become converted, they 
continue to be Chinese subjects. There is no reason why 
there should not be harmony between the people and the 
adherents of foreign religions." 
— Hon. Charles Denby in "China and Her People." 



IX 

KUANG HSU— AS EMPEROR AND REFORMER 

AS a man, there are few characters in 
Chinese history that are more interest- 
ing than Kuang Hsu. He had all the 
caprices of genius with their corresponding weak- 
ness and strength. He could wield a pen with 
the vigour of a Caesar, threaten his greatest 
viceroys, dismiss his leading conservative offi- 
cials, introduce the most sweeping and far- 
reaching reforms that have ever been thought 
of by the Chinese people, and then run from a 
woman as though the very devil was after him. 

He has been variously rated as a genius, an 
imbecile and a fool. Let us grant that he was 
not brilliant. Let us rate him as an imbecile, 
and then let us try to account for his having 
brought into the palace every ingenious toy and 
every wonderful and useful invention and dis- 
covery of the past twenty or thirty years with the 
exception of the X-rays and liquid air. Let us 
try to explain why it was that an imbecile would 
purchase every book that had been printed in the 
Chinese language, concerning foreign subjects of 
learning, up to the time when he was dethroned. 
Let us tell why it was that an imbecile would 

J3 1 



132 Court Life in China 

study all those foreign books without help, with- 
out an assistant, without a teacher, for three 
years, from the time he bought them in 1895 till 
1898, before he began issuing the most remark- 
able series of edicts that have ever come from the 
pen of an Oriental monarch in the same length 
of time. And let us explain how it was that an 
imbecile could embody in his edicts of two or 
three months all the important principles that 
were necessary to launch the great reforms of the 
past ten years. 
; I doubt if any Chinese monarch has ever had a 
more far-reaching influence over the minds of 
the young men of the empire than Kuang Hsu had 
from 1895 till 1898. The preparation for this in- 
fluence had been going on for twenty or thirty 
years previously in the educational institutions 
established by the missions and the government. 
From these schools there had gone out a great 
number of young men who had taken positions 
in all departments of business, and many of the 
state, and revealed to the officials as well as to 
many of the people the power of foreign educa- 
tion. An imperial college had been established 
by the customs service for the special education 
of young men for diplomatic and other positions, 
from which there had gone out young men who 
were the representatives of the government as 
consuls or ministers in the various countries of 
Europe and America. 



Kuang Hsu — As Emperor and Reformer 133 

The fever for reading the same books that 
Kuang Hsu had read was so great as to tax to 
the utmost the presses of the port cities to supply 
the demand, and the leaders of some of the pub- 
lication societies feared that a condition had 
arisen for which they were unprepared. Books 
written by such men as Drs. Allen, Mateer, Mar- 
tin, Williams and Legge were brought out in 
pirated photographic reproductions by the book- 
shops of Shanghai and sold for one-tenth the cost 
of the original work. Authors, to protect them- 
selves, compelled the pirates to deliver over the 
stereotype plates they had made on penalty of 
being brought before the officials in litigation if 
they refused. But during the three years the 
Emperor had been studying these foreign books, 
hundreds of thousands of young scholars all over 
the empire had been doing the same, preparing 
themselves for whatever emergency the studies 
of the young Emperor might bring about. 

One day during the early spring a young 
Chinese reformer came to me to get a list of the 
best newspapers and periodicals published in 
both England and America. I inquired the rea- 
son for this strange move, and he said : 

" The young Chinese reformers in Peking have 
organized a Reform Club. Some of them read 
and speak English, others French, others Ger- 
man and still others Russian, and we are provi- 
ding ourselves with all the leading periodicals of 



134 Court Life in China 

these various countries that we may read and 
study them. We have rented a building, prepared 
rooms, and propose to have a club where we can 
assemble whenever we have leisure, for conver- 
sation, discussion, reading, lectures or whatever 
will best contribute to the ends we have in view." 

"And what are those ends? " I inquired. 

"The bringing about of a new regime in 
China," he answered. " Our recent defeat by 
the Japanese has shown us that unless some 
radical changes are made we must take a second 
place among the peoples of the Orient." 

" This is a new move in Peking, is it not ? " 

" New in Peking," he answered, " but not new 
in the empire. Reform clubs are being organ- 
ized in all the great cities and capitals. In Hsian, 
books have been purchased by all classes from 
the governor of the province down to the hum- 
blest scholar, and the aristocracy have organized 
classes, and are inviting the foreigners to lecture 
to them. Every one, except a few of the oldest 
conservative scholars, are discarding their Confu- 
cian theories and reconstructing their ideas in 
view of present day problems. There is an in- 
tellectual fermentation now going on from which 
a new China is certain to be evolved, and we 
propose to be ready for it when it comes." 

The leader of this reform party was Kang 
Yii-wei, a young Cantonese, who had made a 
thorough study of the reforms of Peter the Great 



Kuang Hsu — As Emperor and Reformer 135 

in Russia, and the more recent reforms in Japan, 
the history of which he had prepared in two 
volumes which he sent to the Emperor. He had 
made a reputation for himself in his native place 
as a " Modern Sage and Reformer," was hailed 
as a " young Confucius," was appointed a third- 
class secretary in the Board of Works, and as 
the Emperor and he had been studying on the 
same lines, Kang, through the influence of the 
brother of the chief concubine, was introduced to 
His Majesty. He had a three hours' conference 
with the Foreign Office, in which he urged that 
China should imitate Japan, and that the old 
conservative ministers and viceroys should be re- 
placed by young men imbued with Western 
ideas, who might confer with the Emperor daily 
in regard to all kinds of reform measures. 

This interview was reported to Kuang Hsu by 
Prince Kung and Jung Lu, who both being old, 
and one of them the greatest of the conservatives, 
could hardly be expected to approve of his theo- 
ries. Kang, however, was asked to embody his 
suggestions in a memorial, was later given an 
audience with the Emperor, and finally called 
into the palace to assist him in the reforms he 
had already undertaken . And if Kang Yii- wei had 
been as great a statesman as he was reformer, 
Kuang Hsu might never have been deposed. 

The crisis came during the summer of 1898. 
I had taken my family to the seashore to spend 



136 Court Life in China 

our summer vacation. A young Chinese scholai 
— a Hanlin — who had been studying in the uni- 
versity for some years, and with whom I was 
translating a work on psychology, had gone with 
me. He took the Peking Gazette, which he read 
daily, and commented upon with more or less 
interest, until June 23d, when an edict was issued 
abolishing the literary essay of the old regime as 
a part of the government examination, and sub- 
stituting therefor various branches of the new 
learning. "We have been compelled to issue 
this decree," said the Emperor, " because our ex- 
aminations have reached the lowest ebb, and we 
see no remedy for these matters except to change 
entirely the old methods for a new course of com- 
petition." 

"What do you think of that?" I asked the 
Hanlin. 

"The greatest step that has ever yet been 
taken," he replied. 

This Hanlin was not a radical reformer, but 
one of a long line of officials who were deeply 
interested in the preservation of their country 
which had weathered the storms of so many 
centuries, — storms which had wrecked Assyria, 
Babylonia, Media, Egypt, Greece and Rome, 
while China, though growing but little, had still 
lived. He was one of those progressive states- 
men who have always been found among a 
strong minority in the Middle Kingdom. 



Kuang Hsu — As Emperor and Reformer 137 

The Peking Gazette continued to come daily 
bringing with it the following twenty-seven de- 
crees in a little more than twice that many days. 
I will give an epitome of the decrees that the 
reader at a glance may see what the Emperor un- 
dertook to do. Summarized they are as follows : 

1. The establishment of a university at Pe- 
king. 

2. The sending of imperial clansmen to for- 
eign countries to study the forms and conditions 
of European and American government. 

3. The encouragement of the arts, sciences 
and modern agriculture. 

4. The Emperor expressed himself as willing 
to hear the objections of the conservatives to 
progress and reform. 

5. Abolished the literary essay as a promi- 
nent part of the governmental examinations. 

6. Censured those who attempted to delay the 
establishment of the Peking Imperial University. 

7. Urged that the Lu-Han railway should be 
prosecuted with more vigour and expedition. 

8. Advised the adoption of Western arms and 
drill for all the Tartar troops. 

9. Ordered the establishment of agricultural 
schools in all the provinces to teach the farmers 
improved methods of agriculture. 

10. Ordered the introduction of patent and 
copyright laws. 

11. The Board of War and Foreign Office 



138 Court Life in China 

were ordered to report on the reform of the mili- 
tary examinations. 

12. Special rewards were offered to inventors 
and authors. 

13. The officials were ordered to encourage 
trade and assist merchants. 

14. School boards were ordered established 
in every city in the empire. 

15. Bureaus of Mines and Railroads were 
established. 

16. Journalists were encouraged to write on 
all political subjects. 

17. Naval academies and training-ships were 
ordered. 

18. The ministers and provincial authorities 
were called upon to assist — nay were begged to 
make some effort to understand what he was 
trying to do and help him in his efforts at reform. 

19. Schools were ordered in connection with 
all the Chinese legations in foreign countries for 
the benefit of the children of Chinese in those 
places. 

20. Commercial bureaus were ordered in 
Shanghai for the encouragement of trade. 

2i. Six useless Boards in Peking were abol- 
ished. 

22. The right to memorialize the throne in 
sealed memorials was granted to all who desired 
to do so. 

23. Two presidents and four vice-presidents 



Kuang Hsu — As Emperor and Reformer 139 

of the BoarcTof Rites were dismissed for disobey- 
ing the Emperor's orders that memorials should 
be allowed to come to him unopened. 

24. The governorships of Hupeh, Kuangtung, 
and Yunnan were abolished as being a useless 
expense to the country. 

25. Schools of instruction in the preparation 
of tea and silk were ordered established. 

26. The slow courier posts were abolished in 
favour of the Imperial Customs Post. 

27. A system of budgets as in Western coun- 
tries was approved. 

I have given these decrees in this epitomized 
form so that all those who are interested in the 
character of this reform movement in China may 
understand something of the influence the young 
Emperor's study had had upon him. Grant that 
they followed one another in too close proximity, 
yet still it must be admitted by every careful 
student of them, that there is not one that would 
not have been of the greatest possible benefit to 
the country if they had been put into operation. 
If the Emperor had been allowed to proceed, 
making them all as effective as he did the Im- 
perial University, and if the ministers and pro- 
vincial authorities had responded to his call, and 
had made " some effort to understand what he 
was trying to do," China might have by this time 
been close upon the heels of Japan in the adop- 
tion of Western ideas. 



140 Court Life in China 

As the edicts continued to come out in such 
quick succession my Hanlin friend became 
alarmed. He came to me one day after the 
Emperor had censured the officials for trying to 
delay the establishment of the Imperial Uni- 
versity and said : 

" I must return to Peking." 

"Why return so soon?" I inquired. 

" There is going to be trouble if the Emperor 
continues his reform at this rate of speed," he 
answered. 

It was when the Emperor had issued the sixth 
of his twenty-seven decrees that this young 
Chinese statesman made this observation. If 
his most intimate advisers had had the per- 
spicuity to have foreseen the final outcome of 
such precipitance might they not have advised 
the Emperor to have proceeded more deliber- 
ately ? When one remembers how China had 
been worsted by Japan, how all her prestige was 
swept away, how, from having been the parent 
of the Oriental family of nations, a desirable 
friend or a dangerous enemy, she was stripped 
of all her glory, and left a helpless giant with 
neither strength nor power, one can easily un- 
derstand the eagerness of this boy of twenty- 
seven to restore her to the pedestal from which 
she had been ruthlessly torn. 

Another reason for his haste may be found in 
the seizure of his territory by the European 



Kuang Hsu — As Emperor and Reformer 141 

powers. A few months before he began his re- 
forms two German priests were murdered by an 
irresponsible mob in the province of Shantung. 
With this as an excuse Germany landed a bat- 
talion of marines at Kiaochou, a port of that 
province, which she took with fifty miles of the 
surrounding territory. As though this were not 
enough, she demanded the right to build all 
the railroads and open all the mines in the 
entire province, and compelled the Chinese to 
pay an indemnity to the families of the murdered 
priests and rebuild the church and houses the 
mob had destroyed. China appealed to Russia 
who had promised to protect her against all in- 
vaders. Instead of coming to her aid, however, 
Russia demanded a similar cession of Port 
Arthur, Talienwan and the surrounding territory 
which she had refused to allow Japan to retain 
two years before. Not to be outdone by the 
others, France demanded and received a similar 
strip of territory at Kuang-chou-wan ; and Eng- 
land found that Wei-hai-wei would be indispen- 
sable as a kennel from which she could guard 
the Russian bear on the opposite shore, but why 
she should have found it necessary also to de- 
mand from China four hundred miles of land 
and water around Hongkong was no doubt dif- 
ficult for Kuang Hsu to understand. 

When the Empress Dowager turned over the 
reins of government to her nephew she did it 



142 Court Life in China 

very much as a father would place the reins in 
the hands of a child whom he was teaching to 
drive an important vehicle on a dangerous road 
— she sat behind him still holding the reins. 
Among the things reserved were that he should 
kotow to her once every five days whether she 
were in Peking or at the Summer Place, and she 
reserved such seals of office as made it necessary 
for all the highest officials to come and express 
their obligations to her at the same time they 
came to thank the Emperor. While Kuang 
Hsu may have been reconciled to the perform- 
ance of these duties at eighteen, they became 
irksome at twenty-seven and he demanded and 
received full liberty in the affairs of state. 

We have seen how he used his liberty, — not 
wisely, perhaps, as a reformer, and yet the ref- 
ormation of China can never be written without 
giving the credit of its inception to Kuang Hsu. 
He was very different from Hsien Feng the hus- 
band of the Empress Dowager before whose 
death we are told " the whole administrative 
power was vested in the hands of a council of 
eight, whilst he himself spent his time in ways 
that were by no means consistent with those 
that ought to have characterized the ruler of a 
great and powerful nation." Whatever else 
may be said of Kuang Hsu, he cannot be ac- 
cused of indolence, extravagance, or indifference 
to the welfare of his country or his people. 



Kuang Hsu — As Emperor and Reformer 143 

Appreciating the difficulty of securing an ex- 
pression of opinion from those opposed to his 
views, and thus getting both sides of the ques- 
tion, in his fourth edict he requested the con- 
servatives to send in their objections to his 
schemes for progress and reform, and then as if 
to get the broadest possible expression of 
opinion he adopted a Shanghai journal called 
Chinese Progress as the official organ of the 
government. But lest this be insufficient, in his 
twenty-second edict he gave the right to all 
officials to address the throne in sealed memo- 
rials. 

There was at this time a third-class secretary 
of the Board of Rites named Wang Chao who 
sent in a memorial in which he advocated : 

1. The abolition of the queue. 

2. The changing of the Chinese style of dress 
to that of the West. 

3. The adoption of Christianity as a state 
religion. 

4. A prospective national parliament. 

5. A journey to Japan by the Emperor and 
Empress Dowager. 

The Board of Rites opened and read this 
memorial, and, astounded at its boldness, they 
summoned the offender before them, and ordered 
him to withdraw his paper. This he refused to 
do and the two presidents and four vice-presi- 
dents of the Board accompanied it with a 



144 Court Life in China 

counter memorial denouncing him to the Em- 
peror as a man who was making narrow-minded 
and wild suggestions to His Majesty. 

Partly because they had opened and read the 
memorial and partly because of their effort to 
prevent freedom of speech, Kuang Hsu issued 
another edict explaining why he had invited 
sealed memorials, and censuring them for ex- 
plaining to him what was narrow-minded and 
wild, as if he lacked the intelligence to grasp that 
feature of the paper. He then turned them all 
over to the Board of Civil Office ordering that 
body to decide upon a suitable punishment for 
their offense, and assuring them that if they made 
it too mild, his righteous wrath would fall upon 
them. The latter decided that they be degraded 
three steps and removed to posts befitting their 
lowered rank, but the Emperor revised the sen- 
tence and dismissed them all from office, and 
this was the beginning of his downfall. 

The Empress Dowager had been spending the 
hot season at the Summer Palace, and during the 
two months and more that the Emperor had been 
struggling with his reform measures, she gave 
no indication, either by word or deed, that she 
was opposed to anything that he had done. And 
I think that all her acts, from that time till the 
close of the Boxer insurrection, can be explained 
without placing her in opposition to his theories 
of progress and reform. 



Kuang Hsu — As Emperor and Reformer 145 

So long as the Emperor devoted himself to the 
creation of new offices he found little active op- 
position on the part of the conservatives, while 
the reformers did everything in their power to 
encourage him. The extent of the movement it 
is not easy to estimate. It opened up the in- 
tensely anti-foreign province of Hupeh, and 
transformed it into a section where railroads 
were to be built connecting the north with the 
south. It opened up the great mining province 
of Shansi and the lumber regions of Manchuria. 
It started railroads which are now lines of trade 
for the whole empire. 

When he issued the fifth edict substituting 
Western science for the literary essay in the great 
examinations, letters and telegrams began to 
pour in upon us at the Peking University from all 
parts of the empire, asking us to reserve room 
for the senders in the school. Their tuition was 
enclosed in their letters, and among those who 
came were the grandson of the Emperor's tutor, 
graduates of various degrees, men of rank, and 
the sons of wealthy gentlemen who had not yet 
obtained degrees. Numerous requests came to 
our graduates to teach English in official families, 
one being employed to teach the grandson of Li 
Hung-chang, and another the sons of a relative 
of the royal family. 

But when his reforms led the Emperor to dis- 
pense with useless offices, as in his twenty-first, 



146 Court Life in China 

twenty-fourth and twenty-sixth edicts, for the pur- 
pose of retrenchment, and to dismiss recalcitrant 
officials for disobedience to his commands, a 
howl arose which was heard throughout the em- 
pire. The six members of the Board of Rites dis- 
missed in edict twenty-three, with certain sym- 
pathizers to give them face, went to the Empress 
Dowager at the Summer Palace, represented to 
her that the boy whom she had placed upon the 
throne was steering the ship of state to certain 
destruction, and begged that she would come 
and once more take the helm. She listened to 
them with the attention and deference for which 
she has always been famed, and then dismissed 
them without any intimation as to what her course 
would be. 

When the Emperor heard what they were do- 
ing, he sent a courier post-haste to call Yuan 
Shih-kai for an interview at the palace. When 
Yuan came, he ordered him to return to Tien- 
tsin, dispose of his superior officer, the Governor- 
General Jung Lu, and bring the army corps of 
12,500 troops of which he was in charge to Pe- 
king, surround the Summer Palace, preventing 
any one from going in or coming out, thus ma- 
king the Empress Dowager a prisoner, and allow- 
ing him to go on with his work of reform. 

It is just here that we see the difference in the 
statesmanship of the Empress Dowager and the 
Emperor. When she appointed these two offi- 



Kuang Hsu — As Emperor and Reformer 147 

cials, one a liberal in eharge of the army, she 
placed the other, a conservative, as his superior 
officer, so that one could not move without the 
knowledge and consent of the other, thus fore- 
stalling just such an order as this. To obey this 
order of the boy Emperor, Yuan must commit 
two great crimes, murder and treason, the one 
on a superior officer, and the other against her 
who had appointed him to office and who had 
been the ruler of the country for thirty-seven years, 
either of which would have been sufficient to have 
execrated him not only in the eyes of his own peo- 
ple but of history and of the world. Nay more, 
had he obeyed this order, the conservatives would 
have raised the cry of rebellion, and an army ten 
times greater than he could have mustered, would 
have crushed Yuan and his little company of 
12,500 men, on the plea that he was about to 
take the throne. 

Yuan then did the only wise thing he could 
have done. He went to Jung Lu, without whose 
consent he had no right to move, showed him 
the order, and asked for his commands. Jung 
Lu told him to leave the order with him, and as 
soon as Yuan had departed he took the train for 
Peking, called on Prince Ching, and they two 
went to the Summer Palace and showed the 
order to Her Majesty, suggesting to her that it 
might be well for her to come into the city and 
give him a few lessons in government. 



148 Court Life in China 

As the Empress Dowager had been behaving 
herself so circumspectly during all the summer 
months, allowing the Emperor to test himself as 
a ruler, one can scarcely blame her for not want- 
ing to be bottled up in the Summer Palace when 
she had done nothing to deserve it. When 
therefore this second delegation of officials, con- 
sisting of the two highest in rank in the empire, 
came to request her to once more take charge of 
the government, she called her sedan chair and 
started for the capital. She went without an 
army, but was accompanied by those of her 
palace eunuchs on whom she could implicitly 
depend, and enough of them to overcome those 
of the Emperor in case there should be trouble. 
That force was necessary is evident from the 
fact that she condemned to death a number of 
his servants after she had taken the throne. 

When the Emperor heard that she was com- 
ing he sent a messenger with letters urging Kang 
Yii-wei to flee, and to devise some means for 
saving the situation, while he attempted to find 
refuge for himself in the foreign legations. This 
however he failed to do, but was taken by the 
Empress Dowager, and his career as a ruler 
ended, and his life as a prisoner began. 



X 

Kuang Hsu — As a Prisoner 



Kuang Hsu deserves a place in history as the prize 
iconoclast. He sent a cold shiver down the spine of the 
literati by declaring that a man's fitness for office should 
not depend upon his ability to write a poem, or upon the 
elegance of his penmanship. This was too much. The 
literati argued that at the rate at which the Emperor was 
going, it might be expected that he would do away with 
chop-sticks and dispense with the queue. 

— Rounsevelle Wildman in "China's Open Door." 



X 

KUANG HSU— AS A PRISONER 

THE year that Kuang Hsii ascended the 
throne a great calamity occurred in 
Peking. The Temple of Heaven — the 
greatest of the imperial temples, the one at 
which the Emperor announces his accession, 
confesses his sins, prays and gives thanks for an 
abundant harvest, was struck by lightning and 
burned to the ground. When the Emperor wor- 
ships here it is as the representative of the people, 
the high priest of the nation, and his prayers are 
offered for his country and not for himself. 
There are no idols in this temple, and his 
prayers go up to Shang-ti the Supreme Being 
"by whom kings reign and princes decree 
justice." When therefore instead of giving rain 
Heaven sent down a fiery bolt to destroy the 
temple at which the Son of Heaven prays, the 
people were struck with dismay. 

The pale faces of the women, the apprehen- 
sive noddings of the men, and the hushed voices 
of our old Confucian teachers as they spoke of 
the matter, indicated the concern with which 
they viewed it. Here was a boy who had been 

I 5 I 



152 Court Life in China 

placed upon the throne by a woman ; he was the 
same generation as the Emperor who had pre- 
ceded him, and hence could not worship him as 
his ancestor. It augured ill both for the Em- 
peror and the empire, and so the boy Emperor 
began his reign in the midst of evil forebodings. 

During the nine years that Kuang Hsu had 
nominal control of affairs a series of dire calami- 
ties befell the empire. Famines as the result of 
drought, floods from the overflow of " China's 
Sorrow," war with Japan, filching of territory 
by the European countries, while editorials ap- 
peared daily in the English papers of the port 
cities to the effect that China was to be divided 
up among the powers. Then too Kuang Hsu 
was childless and there was no hope of his giving 
an heir to the throne. 

Times and seasons have their meanings for 
the Chinese. Anything inauspicious happening 
on New Year's day is indicative of calamity. 
Mr. Chen, a friend of mine, had become a Chris- 
tian contrary to his mother's wishes. When his 
first child was born it was a girl, born on New 
Year's day. His mother shook her head, looked 
distressed, and said that nothing but calamity 
would come to his home. His second child was 
a boy, but the old woman shook her head again 
and sighed saying that it would take more than 
one boy to avert the calamity of one's first baby 
being a girl born on New Year's day, and it was 



Kuang Hsu — As a Prisoner 153 

not until he had five boys in succession that she 
was finally convinced. 

There was an eclipse of the sun on New Year's 
day of 1898 which foreboded calamity to the Em- 
peror. During the summer of this year he began 
his great reform, and in September the Empress 
Dowager took control of the affairs of state and 
Kuang Hsu was put in prison, never again to 
occupy the throne. His prison was his winter 
palace, where, for many months, he was confined 
in a gilded cage of a house, on a small island, 
with the Empress Dowager's eunuchs to guard 
him. These were changed daily lest they might 
sympathize with their unhappy monarch and de- 
vise some means for his liberation. Each day 
when the guard was changed, the drawbridge 
connecting the island with the mainland was re- 
moved, leaving the Emperor to wander about 
in the court of his palace-prison, or sit on the 
southern terrace where it overlooked the lotus 
lake, waiting, hoping and perhaps expecting 
that his last appeal to Kang Yii-wei in which he 
said : " My heart is filled with a great sorrow 
which pen and ink cannot describe ; you must go 
abroad at once and without a moment's delay 
devise some means to save me," might bring 
forth some fruit. 

Whether this confinement interfered with the 
health of the Emperor or not it is impossible to 
say, but from the first he was made to pose as 



154 Court Life in China 

an invalid. As his failing health was constantly 
referred to in the Peking Gazette, the foreigners 
began to fear that it was the intention to dispose 
of the Emperor, and such pressure was brought 
to bear on the government as led them to allow 
the physician attached to the French legation 
to enter the palace and make an examination of 
His Majesty. He found nothing that fresh air 
and exercise would not remedy and assured the 
government that there was no cause for alarm, 
and from that time we heard nothing more of his 
precarious condition. 

One day not long after the coup diktat a 
eunuch came rushing into our compound, his 
face scratched and bleeding, and knocking his 
head on the ground before me, begged me to 
save his life. 

" What is the matter?" I inquired. 

" Oh ! let me join the church ! " he pleaded. 

" What do you want to join the church for? " 
I asked. 

" To save my life," he answered. 

" But what is this all about ? " I urged, raising 
him to his feet. 

" You know the eunuch who came to you to 
buy books," he said. 

I assured him that I knew him. 

" Well," he continued, " I am a friend of his. 
The Empress Dowager has banished him, burned 
all the books he bought for the Emperor, and 



Kuang Hsii — As a Prisoner 155 

I am in danger of losing my head. Let me join 
the church, and thus save my life." 

All I could do was to inform him that this 
was not the business of the church, and after 
further conversation he left and I never saw him 
again. 

Day after day as the Emperor received the 
Peking Gazette on his lonely island he saw one 
after another of his coveted reforms vanish like 
mist before the pen of his august aunt. Nor 
was this all, for often the rescinding edicts ap- 
peared under his own name, and by the New 
Year, when he was brought forth to receive the 
foreign ministers accredited to his court, scarcely 
anything remained of all his reforms but the 
Peking University and the provincial and other 
schools. It is not to be wondered at therefore 
that he was reticent and despondent. What 
promises of good behaviour it was necessary 
for him to make before he was even allowed 
this much liberty, it is useless for us to con- 
jecture. 

Following this audience the Empress Dowager, 
who up to this time had been seen by no foreigner 
except Prince Henry of Prussia, decided to re- 
ceive the wives of the foreign ministers. Her 
motives for this new move it is impossible to de- 
termine.- It may have been to ascertain how the 
foreign governments would treat her who had 
been reported to have calmly ousted " their great 



156 Court Life in China 

and good friend the Emperor," to whom their 
ministers were accredited. Or it may have been 
that she hoped by this stroke of diplomacy to 
gain some measure of recognition as head of the 
government. She would at least see how she 
was regarded. 

The audience was an unqualified success. The 
seven ladies received were charmed by the gra- 
cious manner of their imperial hostess, who as- 
sured them each as she touched her lips to the 
tea which she presented to them that " we are all 
one family," and up to that period of her life 
there was nothing to indicate that she did not 
feel that the sentiment she expressed was true. 
Up to the time of the coup d'etat, as Dr. Martin 
says, "she herself was noted for progressive 
ideas." " It will not be denied by any one," 
says Colonel Denby, "that the improvement and 
progress" described in his first volume, "are 
mainly due to the will and power of the Empress 
Regent. To her own people, up to this period in 
her career, she was kind and merciful, and to 
foreigners she was just." From the time of her 
return to the capital after their flight in 1900 till 
the time of her death she became one of the 
greatest reformers, if not the greatest, that has 
ever sat upon the dragon throne. One cannot 
but wish therefore in the interests of sentiment 
that it were possible to overlook many things 
she did from 1898 to 1900, which in the interests 



Kuang Hsii — As a Prisoner 157 

of truth it will be impossible to disregard. Never- 
theless we should remember that she was driven 
to these things by the filching of her territory by 
the foreigners, and by the false pretentions of the 
superstitious Boxers and their leaders, and in the 
hope of preserving her country. 

Her first act after imprisoning Kuang Hsii was 
to offer a large reward for his adviser Kang Yii- 
wei either alive or dead. Failing to get him, 
" she seized his younger brother Kang Kuang- 
jen, and with five other noble and patriotic 
young men of ability and high promise, he was 
beheaded September 28th, while protesting that 
though they might easily be slain, multitudes of 
others would arise to take their places." One of 
my young Chinese friends who watched this pro- 
cession on its way to the execution grounds told 
me that, — 

" The scene was impossible to describe. These 
five young reformers," after expressing the senti- 
ments quoted above from Dr. Smith, "reviled the 
Empress Dowager and the conservatives in the 
most blood-curdling manner." 

I have already spoken of Wang Chao the 
secretary of the Board of Rites who presented 
the memorial which caused the dismissal of the 
six officials of that body, and, indirectly, the fall 
of the Emperor. Some time before writing this 
petition he called at our home requesting Mrs. 
Headland to go and see his mother who was ill. 



158 Court Life in China 

When his mother recovered he sent her to 
Shanghai, and at the time of the coup diktat he 
failed to get out of the city and went into hiding. 
Some days afterwards a closed cart drove up to 
our home and to our astonishment he stepped 
forth. We expressed our surprise that he was 
still in Peking, and asked : 

" Has the Empress Dowager ceased prose- 
cuting her search for you reformers ? " 

" Not yet," he answered. 

" And what is she doing ? " we inquired. 

" Killing some, banishing others, driving many 
away from the capital, while still others are go- 
ing into self-imposed exile." 

" Does the Emperor know anything about 
this ? " we inquired. 

" No doubt," he replied. " Everybody knows 
it, why not he ? " 

"That will make his imprisonment all the 
harder to bear," we suggested. 

" Quite right," he answered. 

"There is general alarm in the city that the 
Emperor himself will be disposed of; what do 
you think about it ? " 

" Who can tell ? He has not a friend in the 
palace except the first concubine, and, I am told, 
that she like himself is kept in close confinement. 
The Empress stands by her aunt, the Empress 
Dowager, while the eunuchs now are all her 
tools. The officials who go into the palace to 



Kuang Hsu — As a Prisoner 159 

audiences are all conservative and hence against 
him, though I suppose they never see him." 

" Do you suppose he ever sees the edicts is- 
sued in his name ? " 

" Not at all. They are made by the conserva- 
tives and the Empress Dowager and issued with- 
out his knowledge." 

"And what do you propose to do?" we in- 
quired. 

" I shall leave for Shanghai as soon as I can 
safely do so," he replied. 

Before the year had passed the Empress Dow- 
ager had been induced or compelled to select a 
new Emperor. We cannot believe that she did 
it of her own free will, and for several reasons. 
First, the child selected was the son and the 
grandson of ultra conservative princes, and we 
cannot but believe that as she had placed herself 
in the hands of the conservative party, it was 
their selection rather than hers. Second, it must 
have been a humiliation to her ever since she 
discovered that her nephew, whom she had se- 
lected and placed upon the throne in order to 
keep the succession in her own family, being the 
same generation as her son who had died, could 
not worship him as his ancestor, and hence could 
not legally occupy the throne, though as a matter 
of fact such a condition is not unknown in Chi- 
nese history. 

But if her humiliation was great, that of our 



160 Court Life in China 

boy-prisoner was still greater, for he was com- 
pelled to witness an edict, proclaimed in his own 
name, which made him say that as there was no 
hope of his having a child of his own to succeed 
him, he had requested the Empress Dowager to 
select a suitable person who should be proclaimed 
as the successor of Tung Chih, his predecessor, 
thus turning himself out of the imperial line. 
That this could not have been her choice is evi- 
denced, further, by the fact that just as soon as 
she had once more regained her power, she sur- 
rounded herself with progressive officials, turned 
out all the great conservatives except Jung Lu, 
and dispossessing the son of Prince Tuan, at the 
time of her death selected her sister's grandchild 
and proclaimed him successor to her son and 
heir to the Emperor Kuang Hsu, in the following 
edict : 

" Inasmuch as the Emperor Tung Chih had no 
issue, on the fifth day of the twelfth moon of that 
reign (January 12, 1875) an edict was promul- 
gated to the effect that if the late Emperor Kuang 
Hsu should have a son, the said Prince should 
carry on the succession as the heir of Tung Chih. 
But now the late Emperor has ascended upon the 
dragon to be a guest on high, leaving no son, 
and there is no course open but to appoint Pu I, 
the son of Tsai Feng, the Prince Regent, as the 
successor to Tung Chih, and also as heir to the 
Emperor Kuang Hsu," which is quite in keeping 



Kuang Hsu — As a Prisoner 161 

with the conduct and character of the Empress 
Dowager all her life except those two bad years. 

During the days and weeks following the dis- 
possession of Kuang Hsu of the throne, in 1899 
many decrees appeared which signified that at 
no distant date he would be superseded by the 
son of Prince Tuan. The foreign ministers began 
again to look grave. They spoke openly of their 
fear that Kuang Hsu's days were numbered. 
They pressed their desire for the usual New 
Year's audience, and once more the imprisoned 
monarch was brought forth and made to sit upon 
the throne and receive them. But when the la- 
dies asked for an audience they were refused, the 
Empress Dowager being too busy with affairs of 
state. She was at that time seriously consider- 
ing whether or not the government should cast 
in its lot with the Boxers and drive all the for- 
eigners with all their productions into the eastern 
sea. 

One of the princesses told Mrs. Headland that 
before coming to a decision the Empress Dow- 
ager called the hereditary and imperial princes 
into the palace to consult with them as to what 
they would better do. She met them all face to 
face, the Emperor and Prince Tuan standing 
near the throne. She explained to them the rav- 
ages of the foreigners, how they were gradually 
taking one piece after another of Chinese terri- 
tory. 



162 Court Life in China 

" And now," she continued, " we have these 
patriotic braves who claim to be impervious to 
swords and bullets ; what shall we do ? Shall we 
cast in our lot with their millions and drive all 
these foreigners out of China or not ? " 

Prince Tuan, as father of the heir-apparent, 
uneducated, superstitious and ignorant of all for- 
eign affairs, then spoke. He said : 

" I have seen the Boxers drilling, I have heard 
their incantations, and I believe that they will be 
able to effect this much desired end. They will 
either kill the foreigners or drive them out of the 
country and no more will dare to come, and thus 
we will be rid of them." 

The hereditary princes were then asked for an 
expression of opinion. The majority of them 
knew little of foreigners and foreign countries, 
and as Prince Tuan, the father of the future Em- 
peror, had expresssd himself so strongly, they 
hesitated to offer an adverse opinion. But when 
it came to Prince Su, a man of strong character, 
widely versed in foreign affairs, and of independ- 
ent thought, he opposed the measure most vig- 
orously. 

"Who," he asked, "are these Boxers? Who 
are their leaders ? How can they, a mere rabble, 
hope to vanquish the armies of foreign nations?' 

Prince Tuan answered that " by their incanta- 
tions they were able to produce heaven-sent sol- 
diers." 



Kuang Hsu — As a Prisoner 163 

Prince Su denounced such superstition as child- 
ish. But when after further argument between 
him and Prince Tuan the Empress Dowager as- 
sured him that she had had them in the palace 
and had witnessed their prowess, he said no more. 

The imperial princes were then consulted, but 
seeing how Prince Su had fared they were either 
in favour of the measure or non-committal. Fi- 
nally the Empress Dowager appealed to Prince 
Ching who, more diplomatic than the younger 
princes, answered : 

" I consider it a most dangerous undertaking, 
and I would advise against it. But if Your Maj- 
esty decides to cast in your lot with the Boxers I 
will do all in my power to further your wishes." 

It is not a matter of wonder therefore that the 
Empress Dowager should be led into such a 
foolish measure as the Boxer movement, when 
the Prince who had been president of the Foreign 
Office for twenty-five years could so weakly ac- 
quiesce in such an undertaking. 

" The Emperor," said the Princess, " was not 
asked for an expression of his opinion on this oc- 
casion, but when he saw that the Boxer leaders 
had won the day he burst into tears and left the 
room." 

Similar meetings were held in the palace on 
two other occasions, when the Emperor implored 
that they make no attempt to fight all the foreign 
nations, for said he, " the foreigners are stronger 



164 Court Life in China 

than we, both in money and in arms, while their 
soldiers are much better drilled and equipped in 
every way. If we undertake this and fail as we 
are sure to do, it will be impossible to make peace 
with the foreigners and our country will be di- 
vided up amongst them." His pleadings, how- 
ever, were disregarded, and after the meeting was 
over, he had to return to his little island, where 
for eight weeks he was compelled to sit listening 
to the rattling guns, booming cannons and burst- 
ing firecrackers, for the Boxers seemed to hope 
to exterminate the foreigners by noise. He must 
have felt from the books he had studied that it 
could only result in disaster to his own people. 

When the allies reached Peking and the Boxers 
capitulated the Emperor was taken out of his 
prison and compelled to flee with the court. 

"What do you think of your bullet-proof 
Boxers now ? " one can imagine they hear him say- 
ing to his august aunt, as he sees her cutting off 
her long finger nails, dressing herself in blue cot- 
ton garments, and climbing into a common street 
cart as an ordinary servant. "Wouldn't it have 
been better to have taken my advice and that of 
Hsu Ching-cheng and Yuan Chang instead of 
having put them to death for endeavouring in 
their earnestness to save the country? What 
about your old conservative friends ? Can they 
be depended upon as pillars of state ? " Or some 
other " I-told-you-so " language of this kind. 



Kuang Hsu — As a Prisoner 165 

From their exile in Hsian decrees continued to 
be issued in his name, and when affairs began to 
be adjusted, and the allies insisted on setting 
aside forever the pretentions of the anti-foreign 
Prince Tuan and his son, banishing the former 
to perpetual exile, our hopes ran high that the 
Emperor would be restored to his throne. But 
to our disappointment the framers of the Protocol 
contented themselves with the clause that : 
" Rational intercourse shall be permitted with the 
Emperor as in Western countries," and with the 
return of the court in 1902 he was still a prisoner. 

Every one who has written about audiences 
with the Empress Dowager tells how " the Em- 
peror was seated near, though a little below her," 
but they never tell why. The reason is not far 
to seek. The world must not know that he was 
a prisoner in the palace. They must see him 
near the throne, but they may not speak to him. 
The addresses of the ministers were passed to her 
by her kneeling statesmen, and it was they who 
replied. No notice was taken of the Emperor 
though he seemed to be in excellent health. The 
Empress Dowager however still relieved him of 
the burdens of the government, and continued to 
"teach him how to govern." 

" I have seen the Emperor many times," Mrs. 
Headland tells me, "and have spent many hours 
in his presence, and every time we were in the 
palace the Emperor accompanied the Empress 



166 Court Life in China 

Dowager — not by her side but a few steps be- 
hind her. When she sat, he always remained 
standing a few paces in the rear, and never pre- 
sumed to sit unless asked by her to do so. He 
was a lonely person, with his delicate, well-bred 
features and his simple dark robes, and in the 
midst of these fawning eunuchs, brilliant court 
ladies, and bejewelled Empress Dowager he was 
an inconspicuous figure. No minister of state 
touched forehead to floor as he spoke in hushed 
and trembling voice to him, no obsequious 
eunuchs knelt when coming into his presence ; 
but on the contrary I have again and again seen 
him crowded against the wall by these cringing 
servants of Her Majesty. 

" One day while we were in the palace a 
pompous eunuch had stepped before the Em- 
peror quite obliterating him. I saw Kuang Hsu 
put his hands on the large man's shoulders, and 
quietly turn him around, that he might see be- 
fore whom he stood. There were no signs of 
anger on his face, but rather a gentle, pathetic 
smile as he looked up at the big servant. I ex- 
pected to see him fall upon his knees before the 
Emperor, but instead, he only moved a few 
inches to the left, and remained still in front of 
His Majesty. Never when in the palace have I 
seen a knee bend to the Emperor, except that of 
the foreigner when greeting him or bidding him 
farewell. This was the more noticeable as states- 



Kuang Hsu — As a Prisoner 167 

men and eunuchs alike fell upon their knees 
every time they spoke to the Empress Dowager. 

" The first time I saw him his great, pathetic, 
wistful eyes followed me for days. I could not 
forget them, and I determined that if I ever had 
opportunity I would say a few words to him let- 
ting him know that the world was resting in 
hope of his carrying out the great reforms he 
had instituted. But he was so carefully guarded 
and kept under such strict surveillance that I 
never found an opportunity to speak to him. 
Nor did he ever speak to the visitors, court 
ladies, the Empress Dowager, or attendants dur- 
ing all the hours we remained. 

" One of the ministers told me that one day 
after an audience, when the Empress Dowager 
and the Emperor had stepped down from the 
dais, Her Majesty was engaged in conversation 
with one of his colleagues, and as the Emperor 
stood near by, he made some remark to him. 
Immediately the Empress Dowager turned from 
the one to whom she had been talking and 
made answer for the Emperor. 

" On one occasion when there were but four 
of us in the palace, and we were all comfortably 
seated, the Emperor standing a few paces be- 
hind the Empress Dowager, she began discuss- 
ing the Boxer movement, lamenting the loss of 
her long finger nails, and various good-luck 
gourds of which she was fond. The Emperor, 



168 Court Life in China 

probably becoming weary of a conversation in 
which he had no part, quietly withdrew by a 
side entrance to the theatre which was playing 
at the time. For some moments the Empress 
Dowager did not notice his absence, but the in- 
stant she discovered he was gone, a look of 
anxiety overspread her features, and she turned 
to the head eunuch, Li Lien-ying, and in an 
authoritative tone asked : ' Where is the Em- 
peror ? ' There was a scurry among the eunuchs, 
and they were sent hither and thither to inquire. 
After a few moments they returned, saying that 
he was in the theatre. The look of anxiety 
passed from her face as a cloud passes from be- 
fore the sun — and several of the eunuchs re- 
mained at the theatre. 

" I am told that at times the Empress 
Dowager invites the Emperor to dine with her, 
and on such occasions he is forced to kneel at 
the table at which she is seated, eating only 
what she gives him. It is an honour which he 
does not covet, but which he dare not decline 
for fear of giving offense." 



XI 

Prince Chiin — The Regent 



Prince Chun the Regent of China gave a remarkable 
luncheon at the Winter Palace to-day to the foreign envoys 
who gathered here to attend the funeral ceremonies of the 
late Emperor Kuang Hsu. The repast was served in for- 
eign style. Among the Chinese present were Prince Ching, 
former president of the Board of Foreign Affairs and now 
adviser to the Naval Department ; Prince Tsai Chen, a son 
of Prince Ching, who was at one time president of the 
Board of Commerce ; Prince Su, chief of the Naval De- 
partment ; and Liaing Tung-yen, president of the Board of 
Foreign Affairs. After the entertainment the envoys ex- 
pressed themselves as unusually impressed with the person- 
ality of the Regent. 

— Daily Press. 



XI 

PRINCE CHUN— THE REGENT 

THE selection of Prince Chiin as Regent 
for the Chinese empire during the minor- 
ity of his son, Pu I, the new Emperor, 
would seem to be the wisest choice that could be 
made at the present time. In the first place, he 
is the younger brother of Kuang Hsu, the late 
Emperor, and was in sympathy with all the re- 
forms the latter undertook to introduce in 1898. 
If Kuang Hsu had chosen his successor, having 
no son of his own, there is no reason why he 
should not have selected Pu I to occupy the 
throne, with Prince Chiin as Regent, for there is 
no other prince in whom he could have reposed 
greater confidence of having all his reform meas- 
ures carried to a successful issue ; and a brother 
with whom he had always lived in sympathy 
would be more likely to continue his policy than 
any one else. 

But, in the second place, as we may suppose, 
Prince Chun was selected by the Empress Dow- 
ager, whatever the edicts issued, and will thus 
have the confidence of the party of which she has 
been the leader. It is quite wrong to suppose 

171 



172 Court Life in China 

that this is the conservative party, or even a con- 
servative party. China has both reform and con- 
servative parties, but, in addition to these, she 
has many wise men and great officials who are 
neither radical reformers nor ultra-conservatives. 
It was these men with whom the Empress Dow- 
ager allied herself after the Boxer troubles of 1900. 

These men were Li Hung-chang, Chang Chih- 
tung, Yuan Shih-kai, Prince Ching, and others, 
and it is they who, in ten years, with the Empress 
Dowager, put into operation, in a statesmanlike 
way, all the reforms that Kuang Hsu, with his 
hot-headed young radical advisers, attempted to 
force upon the country in as many weeks. There 
is every reason to believe that Prince Chun, the 
present Regent, has the support of all the wiser 
and better element of the Reform party, as well 
as those great men who have been successful in 
tiding China over the ten most difficult years of 
her history, while the ultra-conservatives at this 
late date are too few or too weak to deserve se- 
rious consideration. We, therefore, think that 
the choice of Pu I as Emperor, with Prince 
Chun as Regent, whether by the Empress Dow- 
ager, the Emperor, or both, was, all things con- 
sidered, the best selection that could have been 
made. 

Prince Chun is the son of the Seventh Prince, 
the nephew of the Emperor Hsien Feng and the 
Empress Dowager, and grandson of the Emperor 




O 

H 
< 

O 

w 

2 
w 

< 

x 

H 

H 

< 

O 

w 
u 
3> 



< 

W 

7] 

w 
u 

2 

p^ 

U 

z 

< 



Prince Chiin — The Regent 173 

Tao Kuang. He has a fine face, clear eye, firm 
mouth, with a tendency to reticence. He carries 
himself very straight, and while below the aver- 
age in height, is every inch a prince. He is dig- 
nified, intelligent, and, though not loquacious, 
never at a loss for a topic of conversation. He 
is not inclined to small talk, but when among men 
of his own rank, he does not hesitate to indulge 
in bits of humour. 

This was rather amusingly illustrated at a din- 
ner given by the late Major Conger, American 
minister to China. Major and Mrs. Conger in- 
troduced many innovations into the social life of 
Peking, and none more important than the din- 
ners and luncheons given to the princes and high 
officials, and also to the princesses and ladies of 
the court. In 1904, I was invited to dine with 
Major Conger and help entertain Prince Chiin, 
Prince Pu Lun, Prince Ching, Governor Hu, Na 
T'ung, and a number of other princes and offi- 
cials of high rank. I sat between Prince Chiin 
and Governor Hu. Having met them both on 
several former occasions, I was not a stranger to 
either of them, and as they were well acquainted 
with each other, though one was a Manchu prince 
and the other a Chinese official, conversation 
was easy and natural. 

We talked, of course, in Chinese only, of the 
improvements and advantages that railroads 
bring to a country, for Governor Hu, among 



174 Court Life in China 

other things, was the superintendent of the Im- 
perial Railways of north China. This led us to 
speak of the relative comforts of travel by land 
and by sea, for Prince Chun had gone half round 
the world and back. We listened to the Amer- 
ican minister toasting the young Emperor of 
China, his princes, and his subjects ; and then to 
Prince Ching toasting the young President of 
the United States, his officials, and his people, in 
a most dignified and eloquent manner. And 
then as the buzz of conversation went round the 
table again, and perhaps because of their having 
spoken of the young Emperor and the young 
President, I turned to Governor Hu, who had an 
unusually long, white beard which reached al- 
most to his waist as he sat at table, and said : 

" Your Excellency, what is your honourable 
age ? " 

"I was seventy years old my last birthday," he 
replied. 

" And he is still as strong as either of us young 
men," said I, turning to Prince Chun. 

" Oh, yes," said the Prince ; " he is good for 
ten years yet, and by that time he can use his 
beard as an apron." 

"It is an ill wind that blows no one good," says 
the proverb, and this was never more forcibly il- 
lustrated than in the case of the death of the 
lamented Baron von Kettler. Had it not been 
for this unfortunate occurrence, Prince Chun 




PRINCE CHUN AND HIS DELEGATION 

Sent to apologize to the German Emperor for the murder of Baron von Kettler 



Prince Chlin — The Regent 175 

would not have been sent to Germany to convey 
the apologies of the Chinese government to the 
German Emperor, and he would thus never have 
had the opportunity of a trip to Europe ; and the 
world might once more have beheld a regent on 
the dragon throne who had never seen anything 
a hundred miles from his own capital. 

Prince Chiin started on this journey with such 
a retinue as only the Chinese government can 
furnish. He had educated foreign physicians and 
interpreters, and, like the great Viceroy Li Hung- 
chang, he had a round fan with the Eastern hem- 
isphere painted on one side and the Western on 
the other, and the route he was to travel distinctly 
outlined on both, with all the places he was to pass 
through, or to stop at on the trip, plainly marked. 
He was intelligent enough to observe everything 
of importance in the ports through which he 
passed, and it was interesting to hear him tell of 
the things he had seen, and his characterization 
of some of the people he had visited. 

" What did Your Highness think of the rela- 
tive characteristics of the Germans and the 
French, as you saw them ? " I asked him at the 
same dinner. 

" The people in Berlin," said he, " get up early 
in the morning and go to their business, while 
the people in Paris get up in the evening and go 
to the theatre." 

This may have been a bit exaggerated, but it 



176 Court Life in China 

indicated that the Prince did not travel, as many- 
do on their first trip, with his mouth open and 
his eyes closed. 

After his return to Peking he purchased a 
brougham, as did most of the other leading offi- 
cials and princes at the close of the Boxer troubles, 
and driving about in this carriage, he has been a 
familiar figure from that time until the present. 
As straws show the direction of the wind, these 
incidents ought to indicate that Prince Chun will 
not be a conservative to the detriment of his 
government, or to the hindrance of China's prog- 
ress. 

It is a well-known fact that the Empress Dow- 
ager, in addition to her other duties, took charge 
of the arrangement of the marriages of all her 
nieces and nephews. One of her favourite 
Manchu officials, and indeed one of the greatest 
Manchus of recent years, though very conserva- 
tive, and hence little associated with foreigners, 
was Jung Lu. As the affianced bride of Prince 
Chun had drowned herself in a well during the 
Boxer troubles, the Empress Dowager engaged 
him to the daughter of the lady who had 
been Jung Lu's first concubine, but who, as his 
consort was dead, was raised to the position of 
wife. 

" This Lady Jung," says Mrs. Headland, " is 
some forty years of age, very pretty, talkative, 
and vivacious, and she told me with a good deal 



Prince Chun — The Regent 177 

of pride, on one occasion, of the engagement of 
her son to the sixth daughter of Prince Ching. 
And then with equal enthusiasm she told me how 
her daughter had been married to Prince Chun, 
' which of course relates me with the two most 
powerful families of the empire.' 

" I have met the Princess Chun on several oc- 
casions at the audiences in the palace, at lunch- 
eons with Mrs. Conger, at a feast with the Im- 
perial Princess, at a tea with the Princess Tsai 
Chen, and at the palaces of many of the prin- 
cesses. She is a very quiet little woman, and 
looked almost infantile as she gazed at one with 
her big, black eyes. She is very circumspect in 
her movements, and with such a mother and 
father as she had, I should think may be very 
brilliant. Naturally she had to be specially dig- 
nified and sedate at these public functions, as she 
and the Imperial Princess were the only ones be- 
longing to the old imperial household, the de- 
scendants of Tao Kuang, who were intimately as- 
sociated with the Empress Dowager's court. 
She is small, but pretty, and, as I have indicated, 
quiet and reticent. She was fond of her father, 
and naturally fond of the Empress Dowager, who 
selected her as a wife for her favourite nephew, 
Prince Chun, to whom she promised the succes- 
sion at the time of their marriage. After her 
father's death, and while she was in mourning, 
she was invited into the palace by the Empress 



178 Court Life in China 

Dowager, where she appeared wearing blue 
shoes, the colour used in second mourning. 

" ' Why do you wear blue shoes ? ' asked Her 
Majesty. 

" ' On account of the death of my father,' re- 
plied the Princess. 

"'And do you mourn over your dead father 
more than you rejoice over being in the presence 
of your living ruler ? ' the Empress Dowager in- 
quired. 

"It is unnecessary to add that the Princess 
changed the blue shoes for red ones while she 
remained in the palace, so careful has the Em- 
press Dowager always been of the respect due to 
her dignity and position." 

Having promised the regency to Prince Chun, 
we may infer that the Empress Dowager would 
do all in her power to prepare him to occupy the 
position with credit to himself, and in the hope 
that he would continue the policy which she has 
followed during the last ten years. Whenever, 
therefore, opportunity offered for a prince to 
represent the government at any public function 
with which foreigners were connected, Prince 
Chun was asked or appointed to attend. I have 
said that it was the murder of the German min- 
ister, Baron von Kettler, that gave Prince Chun 
his opportunity to see the world. And just here 
I might add that an account of the massacre of 
Von Kettler, sent from Canton, was published in 



Prince Chun — The Regent 179 

a New York paper three days before it occurred. 
This indicates that his death had been premedi- 
tated and ordered by some high authorities, — 
perhaps Prince Tuan or Prince Chuang, Boxer 
leaders, — because the Germans had taken the 
port of Kiaochou, and had compelled the Chinese 
government to promise to allow them to open all 
the mines and build all the railroads in the prov- 
ince of Shantung. 

After the Boxer troubles were settled, the 
Germans, at the expense of the Chinese govern- 
ment, erected a large stone memorial arch on the 
spot where Von Kettler fell. At its dedication, 
members of the diplomatic corps of all the lega- 
tions in Peking were present, including ladies 
and children, together with a large number of 
Chinese officials representing the city, the gov- 
ernment, and the Foreign Office, and Prince Chun 
was selected to pour the sacrificial wine. He did 
it with all the dignity of a prince, however much 
he may or may not have enjoyed it. On this 
occasion he used one of the ancient, three-legged, 
sacrificial wine-cups, which he held in both hands, 
while Na Tung, President of the Foreign Office, 
poured the wine into the cup from a tankard of a 
very beautiful and unique design. It is the only 
occasion on which I have seen the Prince when 
he did not seem to enjoy what he was doing. I 
ought to add just here that I have heard the 
Chinese refer to this arch as the monument 



180 Court Life in China 

erected by the Chinese government in memory 
of the man who murdered Baron von Kettler ! 

It is a well-known fact that the Boxers des- 
troyed all buildings that had any indication of a 
foreign style of architecture, whether they be- 
longed to Chinese or foreigner, Christian or 
non-Christian, legation, merchant, or missionary. 
In the rebuilding of the Peking legations, mis- 
sions, and educational institutions, there were 
naturally a large number of dedicatory services. 
Many of the Chinese officials attended them, but 
I shall refer to only one or two at which I re- 
member meeting Prince Chun. I believe it was 
the design of the Empress Dowager, as soon as 
she had decided upon him as the Regent, to give 
him as liberal an education in foreign affairs as 
the facilities in Peking would allow. 

For many years the Methodist mission had 
tried to secure funds from America to erect a 
hospital and medical school in connection with 
the mission and the Peking University. This 
they found to be impossible, and finally Dr. N. S. 
Hopkins of Massachusetts, who was in charge of 
that work, consulted with his brother and brother- 
in-law, who subscribed the funds and built the 
institution. This act of benevolence on the part 
of Dr. Hopkins and his friends appealed to the 
Chinese sense of generosity, and when the build- 
ing was completed, a large number of Chinese 
officials, together with Prince Chun and Prince 



Prince Chun — The Regent l8l 

Pu Lun, were present at its dedication. A num- 
ber of addresses were made by such men as 
Major Conger, the American minister, Bishop 
Moore, Na Tung, Governor Hu, General Chiang, 
and others of the older representatives, in which 
they expressed their appreciation of the gener- 
osity which prompted a man like Dr. Hopkins 
to give not only himself, but his money, for the 
education of the Chinese youth and the healing 
of their poor. And I might add that Dr. Hop- 
kins is physician to many of the princes and offi- 
cials in Peking at the present time. 

During this reconstruction, a number of the 
colleges of north China united to form a union 
educational institution. One part of this scheme 
was a union medical college, situated on the Ha- 
ta-men great street not a hundred yards north of 
the Von Kettler memorial arch. To the erection 
of this building the wealthy officials of Peking 
subscribed liberally, and the Empress Dowager 
sent her check for 11,000 taels, equal to $9,000 
in American gold, and appointed Prince Chun 
to represent the Chinese government at its dedi- 
cation. At this meeting Sir Robert Hart made 
an address on behalf of the foreigners, and Na 
Tung on behalf of the Chinese. Although 
Prince Chun took no public part in the exercises, 
he privately expressed his gratification at seeing 
the completion of such an up-to-date hospital 
and medical school in the Chinese capital. 



182 Court Life in China 

I have given these incidents in the life of Prince 
Chun to show that he has had facilities for know- 
ing the world better than any other Chinese 
monarch or regent that has ever sat upon the 
dragon throne, and that he has grasped the oppor- 
tunities as they came to him. He has been in- 
timately associated with the diplomatic life of the 
various legations, which is perhaps the most im- 
portant knowledge he has acquired in dealing 
with foreign affairs, as these ministers are the 
channels through which he must come in contact 
with foreign governments. He has been present 
at the dedication of a number of missionary 
educational institutions, and hence from personal 
contact he will have some comprehension of the 
animus and work of missions and the character 
of the men engaged in that work. He may have 
as a councillor, if he so desires, the Prince Pu 
Lun, who has had a trip around the world, with 
the best possible facilities for seeing Japan, 
America, Great Britain, Germany, France, and 
Italy, and who has been in even more intimate con- 
tact with the diplomats and other foreigners than 
has Prince Chiin himself. My wife and I have 
dined with him and the Princess both at the Amer- 
ican legation and at his own palace, and when we 
left China, they came together in their brougham to 
bid us good-bye, a thing which could not have 
happened a few years ago, and an indication of how 
wide open the doors in China are now standing. 




PRINCE PU LUN, IMPERIAL DELEGATE TO 
THE ST. LOUIS EXPOSITION 



Prince Chun — The Regent 183 

On the whole, therefore, Prince Chun begins 
his regency with a brighter outlook for his 
foreign relations than any other ruler China 
has ever had. What shall we say of his Chinese 
relations? Being the brother of Kuang Hsu, 
and himself a progressive young man, he ought 
to have the support of the Reform party, and be- 
ing the choice of the Empress Dowager, he will 
have the support of the great progressive offi- 
cials who have had the conduct of affairs for the 
last quarter of a century and more, and especially 
for the past ten years, since the Emperor Kuang 
Hsu was deposed. 



XII 

The Home of the Court — The For- 
bidden City 



The innermost enclosure is the Forbidden City and con- 
tains the palace and its surrounding buildings. The wall 
is less solid and high than the city wall, is covered with 
bright yellow tiles, and surrounded by a deep, wide moat. 
Two gates on the east and west afford access to the in- 
terior of this habitation of the Emperor, as well as the 
space and rooms appertaining, which furnish lodgment to 
the guard defending the approach to the dragon's throne. 
— S. Wells Williams in "The Middle Kingdom." 



XII 

THE HOME OF THE COURT— THE FOR- 
BIDDEN CITY 

DURING the past ten years, since the de- 
thronement of the late Emperor Kuang 
Hsu, I have often been asked by Euro- 
peans visiting Peking : 

" What would happen if the Emperor should 
die?" 

"They would put a new Emperor on the 
throne," was my invariable answer. They 
usually followed this with another question : 

" What would happen if the Empress Dowager 
should die ? " 

"In that case the Emperor, of course, would 
again resume the throne," I always replied with- 
out hesitation. But during those ten years, not 
one of my friends ever thought to propound the 
question, nor did I have the wit to ask myself : 

" What would happen if the Emperor and the 
Empress Dowager should both suddenly snap 
the frail cord of life at or about the same time?" 

Had such a question come to me, I confess I 
should not have known how to answer it. It is 
a problem that probably never presented itself to 
any one outside of that mysterious Forbidden 
City, or the equally mysterious spectres that 

187 



188 Court Life in China 

come and go through its half-open gates in the 
darkness of the early morning. There are three 
parties to whom it may have come again and 
again, and to whom we may perhaps be in- 
debted both for the problem and the solution. 

When the deaths of both of their Imperial 
Majesties were announced at the same time, the 
news also came that the Japanese suspected that 
there had been foul play. With them, however, 
it was only suspicion ; none of them, so far as I 
know, ever undertook to analyze the matter or 
unravel the mystery. There is no doubt a rea- 
sonable explanation, but we must go for it to 
the Forbidden City, the most mysterious royal 
dwelling in the world, where white men have 
never gone except by invitation from the throne, 
save on one occasion. 

In 1 901, while the court was in hiding at 
Hsianfu, the city to which they fled when the 
allies entered Peking, the western half of the 
Forbidden City was thrown open to the public, 
the only condition being that said public have a 
certificate which would serve as a pass to the 
American boys in blue who guarded the Wu 
men, or front gate. I was fortunate enough to 
have that pass. 

My first move was to get a Chinese photog- 
rapher — the best I could find in the city — to go 
with me and take pictures of everything I wanted 
as well as anything else that suited his fancy 



The Home of the Court 189 

The city of Peking is regularly laid out. To- 
wards the south is the Chinese city, fifteen miles 
in circumference. To the north is a square, four 
miles on each side, and containing sixteen square 
miles. In the centre of this square, enclosed by 
a beautifully crenelated wall thirty feet thick at 
the bottom, twenty feet thick at the top and 
twenty-five feet high, surrounded by a moat one 
hundred feet wide, is the Forbidden City, occupy- 
ing less than one-half a square mile. In this 
city there dwells but one male human being, the 
Emperor, who is called the " solitary man." 

There is a gate in the centre of each of the four 
sides, that on the south, the Wu men, being the 
front gate, through which the Emperor alone is 
allowed to pass. The back gate, guarded by 
the Japanese during the occupation, is for the 
Empress Dowager, the Empress and the women 
of the court, while the side gates are for the 
officials, merchants or others who may have 
business in the palace. 

Through the centre of this city, from south to 
north, is a passageway about three hundred feet 
wide, across which, at intervals of two hundred 
yards, they have erected large buildings, such as 
the imperial examination hall, the hall in which 
the Emperor receives his bride, the imperial 
library, the imperial kitchen, and others of a like 
nature, all covered with yellow titles, and known 
to tourists, who see them from the Tartar City 



190 Court Life in China 

wall, as the palace buildings. These, however, 
are not the buildings in which the royal family 
live. They are the places where for the past 
five hundred years all those great diplomatic 
measures — and dark deeds — of the Chinese em- 
perors and their great officials have been trans- 
acted between midnight and daylight. 

If you will go with me at midnight to the 
great gate which leads from the Tartar to the 
Chinese city — the Chien men — you will hear the 
wailing creak of its hinges as it swings open, 
and in a few moments the air will be filled with 
the rumbling of carts and the clatter of the feet 
of the mules on the stone pavement, as they 
take the officials into the audiences with their 
ruler. If you will remain with me there till a 
little before daylight you will see them, like 
silent spectres, sitting tailor-fashion on the bot- 
tom of their springless carts, returning to their 
homes, but you will ask in vain for any informa- 
tion as to the business they have transacted. 
" They love darkness rather than light," not per- 
haps " because their deeds are evil," but because 
it has been the custom of the country from time 
immemorial. 

Immediately to the north of this row of im- 
perial palace buildings, and just outside the 
north gate, there is an artificial mound called 
Coal Hill, made of the dirt which was removed 
to make the Lotus Lakes. It is said that in this 



The Home of the Court 191 

hill there is buried coal enough to last the city 
in time of siege. This, however, was not the 
primary design of the hill. It has a more mys- 
terious meaning. There have always been 
spirits in the earth, in the air, in every tree and 
well and stream. And in China it has ever 
been found necessary to locate a house, a city or 
even a cemetery in such surroundings as to pro- 
tect them from the entrance of evil spirits. 
"Coal Hill," therefore, was placed to the north 
of these imperial palace buildings to protect 
them from the evil spirits of the cold, bleak 
north. 

Just inside of that north gate there is a 
beautiful garden, with rockeries and arbours, 
flowering plants and limpid artificial streams 
gurgling over equally artificial pebbles, though 
withal making a beautiful sight and a cool shade 
in the hot summer days. In the east side of this 
garden there is a small imperial shrine having 
four doors at the four points of the compass. In 
front of each of these doors there is a large 
cypress-tree, some of them five hundred years 
old, which were split up from the root some 
seven or eight feet, and planted with the two 
halves three feet apart, making a living arch 
through which the worshipper must pass as he 
enters the temple. To the north of the garden 
and east of the back gate there is a most beauti- 
ful Buddhist temple, in which only the members 



192 Court Life in China 

of the imperial family are allowed to worship, in 
front of which there is also a living arch like 
those described above, as may also be found be- 
fore the imperial temples in the Summer Palace. 
This is one of the most unique and mysterious 
features of temple worship I have found any- 
where in China, and no amount of questioning 
ever brought me any explanation of its mean- 
ing. 

Now if you will go with me to the top of Coal 
Hill I will point out to you the buildings in 
which their Majesties have lived. There are six 
parallel rows of buildings, facing the south, each 
behind the other, in the northwest quarter of this 
Forbidden City, protected from the evil spirits 
of the north by the dagoba on Prospect Hill. 

Perhaps you would like to go with me into 
these homes of their Majesties — or, as a woman's 
home is always more interesting than the den of 
a man, let me take you through the private 
apartments of the greatest woman of her race — 
the late Empress Dowager. She occupied three 
of these rows of buildings. The first was her 
drawing-room and library, the second her din- 
ing-room and sleeping apartments, and the third 
her kitchen. 

One was strangely impressed by what he saw 
here. There was no gorgeous display of Oriental 
colouring, but there was beauty of a peculiarly 
penetrating quality — and yet a homelike beauty. 



The Home of the Court 193 

No description that can be written of it will ever 
do it justice. Not until one can see and ap- 
preciate the paintings of the old Chinese 
masters of five hundred years ago hanging upon 
the walls, the beautiful pieces of the best porce- 
lain of the time of Kang Hsi and Chien Lung, 
made especially for the palace, arranged in their 
natural surroundings, on exquisitely carved 
Chinese tables and brackets, the gorgeously em- 
broided silk portieres over the doorways, and 
the matchless tapestries which only the Chinese 
could weave for their greatest rulers, can we ap- 
preciate the beauty, the richness, and the refined 
elegance of the private apartments of the great 
Dowager. 

I went into her sleeping apartments. Others 
also entered there, sat upon her couch, and had 
their friends photograph them. I could not 
allow myself to do so. I stood silent, with head 
uncovered as I gazed with wonder and admira- 
tion at the bed, with its magnificently em- 
broidered curtains hanging from the ceiling to 
the floor, its yellow-satin mattress ten feet in 
length and its great round, hard pillow, with the 
delicate silk spreads turned back as though it 
were prepared for Her Majesty's return. On the 
opposite side of the room there was a brick 
kang bed, such as we find in the homes of all 
the Chinese of the north, where her maids 
slept, or sat like silent ghosts while the only 



194 Court Life in China 

woman that ever ruled over one-third of the 
human race took her rest. The furnishings 
were rich but simple. No plants, no intricate 
carvings to catch the dust, nothing but the two 
beds and a small table, with a few simple and 
soothing wall decorations, and the monotonous 
tick-tock of a great clock to lull her to sleep. 

If Shakespeare could say with an English 
monarch in his mind, " Uneasy lies the head 
that wears a crown," we might repeat it with 
added emphasis of Tze Hsi. For forty years she 
had to rise at midnight, winter as well as summer, 
and go into the dark, dreary, cold halls of the 
palace, lighted much of the time with nothing 
but tallow dips, and heated only with brass 
braziers filled with charcoal, and there sit behind 
a screen where she could see no one, and no one 
could see her, and listen to the reports of those 
who came to these dark audiences. Then she 
must, in conjunction with them, compose edicts 
which were sent out to the Peking Gazette, the 
oldest and poorest newspaper in the world, to be 
carved on blocks, and printed, and then sent by 
courier to every official in the empire. Ruling 
over a conquered race, she must always be 
watching out for signs of discontent and re- 
bellion ; being herself the daughter of a poor 
man, and beginning as only the concubine of an 
emperor, and he but a weak character, she must 
be alert for dissatisfaction on the part of the 



The Home of the Court 195 

princes who might have some title to the throne. 
She must watch the governors in the distant 
provinces and the viceroys who are in charge of 
great armies, that they do not direct them against 
instead of in defense of the throne. 

When her husband died while a fugitive two 
hundred miles from her palace, she must see to 
it that her three-year-old child was placed upon 
the throne with her own hand at the helm, and 
when he died she must also be ready with a suc- 
cessor, who would give her another lease of 
office. Even when he became of age and took 
the throne she must watch over him like a guard- 
ian, to prevent his bringing down upon their 
own heads the structure which she had builded. 
Nay, more, when it became necessary for her to 
dethrone him and rule in his name, banishing 
his friends and pacifying his enemies, keeping 
him a prisoner in his palace, it required a cour- 
age that was titanic to do so. But she never 
flinched, though we may suppose that many of 
her poorest subjects, who could sleep from dark 
till daylight with nothing but a brick for a pillow, 
might have rested more peacefully than she. 

She had a myriad of other duties to perform. 
She was the mother-in-law of that imperial 
household, with the Emperor, the Empress, sixty 
concubines, two thousand eunuchs, and any 
number of court ladies and maid-servants. 
Their expenses were enormous and she must 



196 Court Life in China 

keep her eye on every detail. The food they 
ate was similar to that used by all the Chinese 
people. I happen to know this, Lecause one of 
her eunuchs who visited me frequently to ask 
my assistance in a matter which he had under- 
taken for the Emperor, often brought me various 
kinds of meat, or other delicacies of a like nature, 
from the imperial kitchens. 

I want you to visit three of the imperial temples 
in these beautiful palace grounds. The first is a 
tall, three-story building at the head of that mag- 
nificent Lotus Lake. In it there stands a Buddhist 
deity with one thousand heads and one thousand 
arms and hands. Standing upon the ground 
floor its head reaches almost to the roof. Its 
body, face and arms are as white as snow. 
There is nothing else in the building — nothing 
but this mild-faced Buddhist divinity for that 
brilliant, black-eyed ruler of China's millions to 
worship. 

Standing near by is another building of far 
greater beauty. It is faced all over with en- 
caustic tiles, each made at the kiln a thousand 
miles away, for the particular place it was to 
occupy. Each one fits without a flaw, a sug- 
gestion to American architects on Chinese 
architecture. 

The second of these temples stands to the west 
of the Coal Hill, immediately to the north of the 
homes of their Majesties. One day while pass- 



The Home of the Court 197 

ing through the forbidden grounds I came upon 
this temple from the rear. In the dome of one 
of the buildings is a circular space some ten feet 
in diameter, carved and gilded in the form of two 
magnificent dragons after the fabled pearl. It 
is to this place the Emperor goes in time of 
drought to confess his sins, for he confesses to 
the gods that the drought is all his doing, and 
to pray for forgiveness, and for rain to enrich 
the thirsty land. The towers on the corners of 
the wall of the Forbidden City are the same style 
of architecture as the small pavilion in the front 
court of this temple. 

Now as the buds of spring are bursting and 
the eaves on the mulberry-trees are beginning 
to develop, will you go with the Empress 
Dowager or the Empress into a temple on 
Prospect Hill, between the Coal Hill and the 
Lotus Lake, where she offers sacrifices to the god 
of the silkworm and prays for a prosperous year 
on the work of that little insect ? Above it stands 
one of the most hideous bronze deities I have 
ever seen — male and naked — in a beautiful little 
shrine, every tile of which is made in the form of 
a Buddha's head. During the occupation tourists 
were allowed to visit this place freely, and their 
desire for curios overcoming their discretion, they 
knocked the heads off these tiles until, when the 
place was closed, there was not a single tile which 
had not been defaced. 



198 Court Life in China 

One other building in the Forbidden City is 
worthy of our attention. It is the art gallery. 
It is not generally known that China is the 
parent of all Oriental art. We know something 
of the art of Japan but little about that of China. 
And yet the best Japanese artists have never 
hoped for anything better than to equal their 
Chinese teacher. In this art gallery there are 
stored away the finest specimens of the old 
masters for ten centuries or more, together with 
portraits of all the noted emperors. Among 
these portraits we may now find two of the Em- 
press Dowager, one painted by Miss Carl, and 
another by Mr. Vos, a well-known American 
portrait painter. 



XIII 
The Ladies of the Court 



I love to talk with my people of their Majesties, the 
princesses, and the Chinese ladies, as I have seen and 
known them. Your friendship I will always remember. 
Her Majesty, your imperial sister, found a warm place in 
my heart and is treasured there. Please extend to the 
Imperial Princess my cordial greetings and to the other 
princesses my best of good wishes. 
— Mrs. E. H. Conger, in a letter to the Princess Shun. 



XIII 
THE LADIES OF THE COURT 

THE leading figure of the court is Yeho- 
nala, wife of the late Emperor Kuang 
Hsu. She has always been called the 
Young Empress, but is now the Empress Dowa- 
ger. After the great Dowager was made the 
concubine of Hsien Feng, she succeeded in ar- 
ranging a marriage, as we have seen, between 
her younger sister and the younger brother of 
her husband, the Seventh Prince, as he was called, 
father of Kuang Hsu and the present regent. 

The world knows how, in order to keep the 
succession in her own family, she took the son of 
this younger sister, when her own son the Em- 
peror Tung Chih died, and made him the Em- 
peror Kuang Hsu when he was but little more 
than three years of age. When the time came 
for him to wed, she arranged that he should 
marry his cousin, Yehonala, the daughter of her 
favourite brother, Duke Kuei. This Kuang Hsu 
was not inclined to do, as his affections seem to 
have been centred on another. The great Dow- 
ager, however, insisted upon it, and he finally 
made her Empress, and to satisfy, — or shall we 
say appease him? — she allowed him to take 

201 



202 Court Life in China 

as his first concubine the lady he wanted as his 
wife ; and it was currently reported in court cir- 
cles that when Yehonala came into his presence 
he not infrequently kicked off his shoe at her, a 
bit of conduct that is quite in keeping with the 
temper usually attributed to Kuang Hsu during 
those early years. This may perhaps explain 
why she stood by the great Dowager through 
all the troublous times of 1898 and 1900, in spite 
of the fact that her imperial aunt had taken her 
husband's throne. 

Mrs. Headland tells me that " Yehonala is not 
at all beautiful, though she has a sad, gentle face. 
She is rather stooped, extremely thin, her face 
long and sallow, and her teeth very much de- 
cayed. Gentle in disposition, she is without self- 
assertion, and if at any of the audiences we were 
to greet her she would return the greeting, but 
would never venture a remark. At the audiences 
given to the ladies she was always present, but 
never in the immediate vicinity of either the 
Empress Dowager or the Emperor. She would 
sometimes come inside the great hall where they 
were, but she always stood in some inconspicuous 
place in the rear, with her waiting women about 
her, and as soon as she could do so without at- 
tracting attention, she would withdraw into the 
court or to some other room. In the summer- 
time we sometimes saw her with her servants 
wandering aimlessly about the court. She had 



The Ladies of the Court 203 

the appearance of a gentle, quiet, kindly person 
who was always afraid of intruding and had no 
place or part in anything. And now she is the 
Empress Dowager ! It seems a travesty on the 
English language to call this kindly, gentle soul 
by the same title that we have been accustomed 
to use in speaking of the woman who has just 
passed away." 

My wife tells me that, — " A number of years 
ago I was called to see Mrs. Chang Hsu who was 
suffering from a nervous breakdown due to worry 
and sleeplessness. On inquiry I discovered that 
her two daughters had been taken into the pal- 
ace as concubines of the Emperor Kuang Hsu. 
Her friends feared a mental breakdown, and 
begged me to do all I could for her. She took 
me by the hand, pulled me down on the brick 
bed beside her, and told me in a pathetic way 
how both of her daughters had been taken from 
her in a single day. 

" ' But they have been taken into the palace,' I 
urged, to try to comfort her, ' and I have heard 
that the Emperor is very fond of your eldest 
daughter, and wanted to make her his empress.' 

" ' Quite right,' she replied, ' but what consola- 
tion is there in that ? They are only concubines, 
and once in the palace they are dead to me. No 
matter what they suffer, I can never see them or 
offer them a word of comfort. I am afraid of the 
court intrigues, and they are only children and 



204 Court Life in China 

cannot understand the duplicity of court life — I 
fear for them, I fear for them,' and she swayed 
back and forth on her brick bed. 

" Time, however, the great healer with a little 
medicine and sympathy to quiet her nerves j 
brought about a speedy recovery, though in the 
end her fears proved all too true." 

In 1897 the brother of this first concubine met 
Kang Yii-wei in the south, and became one of 
his disciples. Upon his return to Peking, know- 
ing of the Emperor's desire for reform, and his 
affection for his sister, he found means of com- 
municating with her about the young reformer. 

At the time of the coup diktat, and the impris- 
onment of the Emperor, this first concubine was 
degraded and imprisoned on the ground of hav- 
ing been the means of introducing Kang Yii-wei 
to the notice of the Emperor, and thus interfering 
in state affairs. She continued in solitary con- 
finement from that time until the flight of the 
court in 1900 when in their haste to get away 
from the allies she was overlooked and left in the 
palace. When she discovered that she was alone 
with the eunuchs, fearing that she might become 
a victim to the foreign soldiers, she took her life 
by jumping into a well. On the return of the 
court in 1902, the Empress Dowager bestowed 
upon her posthumous honours, in recognition of 
her conduct in thus taking her life and protecting 
her virtue. 



The Ladies of the Court 205 

Some conception of the haste and disorder with 
which the court left the capital on that memo- 
rable August morning may be gleaned from the 
fact that her sister was also overlooked and with 
a eunuch fled on foot in the wake of the depart- 
ing court. She was overtaken by Prince Chuang 
who was returning in his chair from the palace, 
where, with Prince Ching, he had been to inform 
their Majesties that the allies were in possession 
of the city. The eunuch, recognizing him, 
called his attention to the fleeing concubine, who, 
when he had alighted and greeted her, begged 
him to find her a cart that she might follow the 
court. Presently a dilapidated vehicle came by 
in which sat an old man. The Prince ordered him 
to give the cart to the concubine and sent her to 
his palace where a proper conveyance was secured, 
and she overtook the court at the Nankow pass. 

At the audiences, this concubine was always 
in company with the Empress Yehonala, stand- 
ing at her left. She, however, lacked both the 
beauty and intelligence of her sister. 

The ladies of the court, who were constantly 
associated with the Empress Dowager as her 
ladies in waiting, are first, the Imperial Princess, 
the daughter of the late Prince Kung, the sixth 
brother of the Empress Dowager's husband. Out 
of friendship for her father, the Empress Dow- 
agers adopted her as their daughter, giving her 
all the rights, privileges and titles of the daughter 



206 Court Life in China 

of an empress. She is the only one in the em- 
pire who is entitled to ride in a yellow chair such 
as is used by the Empress Dowager, the Em- 
peror or Empress. The highest of the princes — 
even Prince Ching himself — has to descend from 
his chair if he meet her. Yet when this lady is 
in the palace, no matter how she may be suffer- 
ing, she dare not sit down in the presence of Her 
Majesty. 

" One day when we were in the palace," says 
Mrs. Headland, " the Imperial Princess was suffer- 
ing from such a severe attack of lumbago, that 
she could scarcely stand. I suggested to her that 
she retire to the rear of the room, behind some of 
the pillars and rest a while. 

" ' I dare not do that,' she replied ; ' we have no 
such a custom in China.' " 

She is austere in manner, plain in appearance, 
dignified in bearing, about sixty-five years of age, 
and is noted for her accomplishment in making 
the most graceful courtesy of any lady in the court. 

During the Boxer troubles and the occupation, 
her palace was plundered and very much injured, 
and she escaped in her stocking feet through a 
side door. At the first luncheon given at her 
palace thereafter, she apologized for its desolate 
appearance, saying that it had been looted by the 
Boxers, though we knew it had been looted by 
the allies. At later luncheons, however, she had 
procured such ornaments as restored in some 



The Ladies of the Court 207 

measure its original beauty and grandeur, though 
none of these dismantled palaces will regain their 
former splendour for many years to come. 

Next to the Imperial Princess are the two sis- 
ters of Yehonala, one of whom is married to Duke 
Tse, who was head of the commission that made 
the tour of the world to inquire as to the best 
form of government to be adopted by China in 
her efforts at renovation and reform. It is not 
too much to suppose that it was because the 
Duke was married to the Empress Dowager's 
niece that he was made the head of this commis- 
sion, which after its return advised the adoption 
of a constitution. The other sister is the wife of 
Prince Shun, and is the opposite of the Empress. 
She is stout, but beautiful. She has always been 
the favourite niece of the Empress Dowager, ap- 
peared at all the functions, and though very 
sedate when foreign ladies were present at an 
audience, I was told by the Chinese that when 
the imperial family were alone together she was 
the life of the company. She would even stand 
behind the Empress Dowager's chair " making 
such grimaces," the Chinese expressed it, as to 
make it almost impossible for the others to retain 
their equilibrium. As she was the youngest of 
the three sisters, and because of her happy dispo- 
sition, the Chinese nicknamed her hsiao kuniang, 
" the little girl." These three sisters are all child- 
less. 



208 Court Life in China 

The Princess Shun and Princess Tsai Chen, 
only daughter-in-law of Prince Ching, herself the 
daughter of a viceroy, were very congenial, and 
the most intimate friends of all those in court 
circles. The latter is beautiful, brilliant, quick, 
tactful, and graceful. Of all the ladies of the 
court she is the most witty and, with Princess 
Shun, the most interesting. These two more 
than any others made the court ladies easy to en- 
tertain at all public functions, for they were full 
of enthusiasm and tried to help things along. 
They seemed to feel that they were personally 
responsible for the success of the audience or the 
luncheon as a social undertaking. 

Lady Yuan is one of two of these court ladies 
who dwelt with the Empress Dowager in the 
palace, the other being Prince Ching's fourth 
daughter. She is a niece by marriage of the 
Empress Dowager, though she really was never 
married. The nephew of the Empress Dowager k 
to whom she was engaged, though she had 
never seen him, died before they were married. 
After his death, but before his funeral, she 
dressed herself as a widow, and in a chair 
covered with white sackcloth went to his 
home, where she performed the ceremonies 
proper for a widow, which entitled her to take 
her position as his wife. Such an act is regarded 
as very meritorious in the eyes of the Chinese, 
and no women are more highly honoured than 




A MANCHU PRINCESS 



The Ladies of the Court 209 

those who have given themselves in this way to 
a life of chastity. 

The second of these ladies who remained in 
the palace with the Empress Dowager is the 
fourth daughter of Prince Ching. Married to 
the son of a viceroy, their wedded life lasted only 
a few months. She was taken into the palace, 
and being a widow, she neither wears bright 
colours nor uses cosmetics. She is a fine scholar, 
very devout, and spends much of her time in 
studying the Buddhist classics. She is considered 
the most beautiful of the court ladies. 

The Empress Dowager took charge of most 
of the domestic matters of all her relatives, taking 
into the palace and associating with her as court 
ladies some who were widowed in their youth, 
and keeping constantly with her only those whom 
she has elevated to positions of rank, or members 
of her own family. Nor was she too busy with 
state affairs to stop and settle domestic quarrels. 

Among the court ladies there was one who 
was married to a prince of the second order. 
Her husband is still living, but as they were not 
congenial in their wedded life, the Empress 
Dowager made herself a kind of foster-mother to 
the Princess and banished her husband to Mon- 
golia, an incident which reveals to us another 
phase of the great Dowager's character — that of 
dealing with fractious husbands. 



XIV 

The Princesses — Their Schools 



The position accorded to woman in Chinese society is 
strictly a domestic one, and, as is the case in other Eastern 
countries, she is denied the liberty which threatens to at- 
tain such amazing proportions in the West. There is no 
reason to suppose that woman in China is treated worse 
than elsewhere ; but people can of course paint her con- 
dition just as fancy seizes them. They are rarely ad- 
mitted into the domestic surroundings of Chinese homes, 
therefore there is nothing to curb the imagination. The 
truth is that just as much may be said on one side as on 
the other. Domestic happiness is in China — as every- 
where else the world over — a lottery. The parents in- 
variably select partners in marriage for their sons and 
daughters, and sometimes make as great blunders as the 
young people would if left to themselves. 

— Harold E* Gorst in "China" 



XIV 

THE PRINCESSES— THEIR SCHOOLS 1 

ONE day while making a professional call 
on the Princess Su our conversation 
turned to female education in China. I 
was deeply interested in the subject, and was 
aware that the Prince had established a school 
for the education of his daughters and the women 
of his palace, and was naturally pleased when 
the Princess asked : 

" Would you care to visit our school when it 
is in session?" 

" Nothing would please me more," I answered. 
" When may I do so ? " 

"Could you come to-morrow morning?" she 
inquired. 

"With pleasure ; at what time ? " 

" I will send my cart for you." 

The following morning the Prince's cart ap- 
peared. It was lined with fur, upholstered in 
satin, furnished with cushions, and encircled by 
a red band which indicated the rank of its owner. 
A venerable eunuch, the head of the palace serv- 
ants, preceded it as an outrider, and assisted me 
in mounting and dismounting, while the driver 

1 Taken from Mrs. Headland's note-book. 
213 



214 Court Life in China 

in red-tasselled hat walked decorously by the 
side. 

The school occupies a large court in the palace 
grounds. Another evidence of Western influ- 
ence in the same court is a large two-story house 
of foreign architecture where the Prince receives 
his guests. Prince Su was the first to have this 
foreign reception hall, but he has been followed 
in this respect by other officials and princes as 
well as by the Empress Dowager. 

" This is not unlike our foreign compounds," 
I remarked to the Princess as we entered the 
court. 

" Yes," she replied, " the Prince does not care 
to have the court paved, but prefers to have it 
sodded and filled with flowers and shrubs." 

The school building was evidently designed 
for that purpose, being light and airy with the 
whole southern exposure made into windows, 
and covered with a thin white paper which gives 
a soft, restful light and shuts out the glare of the 
sun. The floor is covered with a heavy rope 
matting while the walls are hung with botanical, 
zoological and other charts. Besides the usual 
furniture for a well-equipped schoolroom, it was 
heated with a foreign stove, had glass cases for 
their embroidery and drawing materials, and a 
good American organ to direct them in singing, 
dancing and calisthenics. 

I arrived at recess. The Princess took me into 



The Princesses — Their Schools 215 

the teacher's den, which was cut off from the 
main room by a beautifully carved screen. 
Here I was introduced to the Japanese lady 
teacher and served with tea. She spoke no 
English and but little Chinese, and the em- 
barrassment of our effort to converse was only 
relieved by the ringing of the bell for school. 
The pupils, consisting of the secondary wives 
and daughters of the Prince, his son's wife, and' 
the wives and daughters of his dead brother who 
make their home with him, entered in an orderly 
way and took their seats. When the teacher 
came into the room the ladies all arose and re- 
mained standing until she took her place before 
her desk and made a low bow to which they all 
responded in unison. This is the custom in all 
of the schools I have visited. Even where the 
superintendent is Chinese, the pupils stand and 
make a low Japanese bow at the beginning and 
close of each recitation. 

" How long has the school been in session ? " 
I asked the Princess. 

" Three and a half months," she replied. 

" And they have done all this embroidery and 
painting in that time? " 

"They have, and in addition have pursued 
their Western studies," she explained. 

In arithmetic the teacher placed the examples 
on the board, the pupils worked them on their 
slates, after which each was called upon for an 



21 6 Court Life in China 

explanation, which she gave in Japanese. 
While this class was reciting the Prince came in 
and asked if we might not have calisthenics, 
evidently thinking that I would enjoy the drill 
more than the mathematics. It was interesting 
to see those Manchu ladies stand and go through 
a thorough physical drill to the tune of a lively 
march on a foreign organ. The Japanese are 
masters in matters of physical drill, and in the 
schools I have visited I have been pleased at the 
quiet dignity, and the reserve force and sweet- 
ness of their Japanese teachers. The precision 
and unanimity with which orders were executed 
both surprised and delighted me. Everything 
about these schools was good except the singing, 
which was excruciatingly poor. The Chinese 
have naturally clear, sweet voices, with a tend- 
ency to a minor tone, which, with proper train- 
ing, admit of fair development. But the Jap- 
anese teacher dragged and sang in a nasal tone, 
in which the pupils followed her, evidently 
thinking it was ^proper Western music. I was 
rather amused to see the younger pupils go 
through a dignified dance or march to the 
familiar strains of " Shall we gather at the 
river," which the eldest daughter played on the 
organ. 

" The young ladies do not comb their hair in 
the regular Manchu style," I observed to the 
Princess. 



The Princesses — Their Schools 217 

" No," she answered, " we do not think that 
best. It is not very convenient, and so we have 
them dress it in the small coil on top of the head 
as you see. Neither do we allow them to wear 
flowers in their hair, nor to paint or powder, or 
wear shoes with centre elevations on the soles. 
We try to give them the greatest possible con- 
venience and comfort." 

They were proud of their bits of crocheting 
and embroidery, each of which was marked 
with the name of the person who did it and the 
date when it was completed. Many of them 
were made of pretty silk thread in a very intri- 
cate pattern, though I admired their drawing 
and painting still more. 

"Of what does their course of study consist ? " 
I asked the Princess. 

She went to the wall and took down a neat 
gilt frame which contained their curriculum, and 
which she asked her eldest daughter to copy for 
me. They had five studies each day, six days of 
the week, Sunday being a holiday. They be- 
gan with arithmetic, followed it up with Japanese 
language, needlework, music and calisthenics, 
then took Chinese language, drawing, and 
Chinese history with the writing of the ideo- 
graphs of their own language, which was one of 
the most difficult tasks they had to perform. 
The dignified way in which the pupils con- 
ducted themselves, the respect which they 



2l8 Court Life in China 

showed their teacher, and the way in which they 
went about their work, delighted me. The 
discipline it gave them, the self-respect it 
engendered, and the power of acquisition that 
came with it were worth more perhaps than the 
knowledge they acquired, useful as that infor- 
mation must have been. 

The Princess Ka-la-chin, the fifth sister of 
Prince Su, is married to the Mongolian Prince 
Ka-la. It is a rule among the Manchus that no 
prince can marry a princess of their own people, 
but like the Emperor himself, must seek their 
wives from among the untitled. These ladies 
after their marriage are raised to the rank of 
their husbands. It is the same with the 
daughters of a prince. Their husbands must 
come from among the people, but unlike the 
princes they cannot raise them to their own 
rank, and so their children have no place in the 
imperial clan. Many of the princesses therefore 
prefer to marry Mongolian princes, by which 
they retain their rank as well as that of their 
children. 

Naturally a marriage of this kind brings 
changes into the life of the princess. She has 
been brought up in a palace in the capital, lives 
on Chinese food, and is not inured to hardships. 
When she marries a Mongol prince, she is taken 
to the Mongolian plains, is not infrequently 
compelled to live in a tent, and her food consists 



The Princesses — Their Schools 219 

largely of milk, butter, cheese and meat, most of 
which are an abomination to the Chinese. They 
especially loathe butter and cheese, and not in- 
frequently speak of the foreigner smelling like 
the Mongol — an odour which they say is the re- 
sult of these two articles of diet. 

Prince Su's fifth sister was fortunate in being 
married to a Mongol prince who was not a 
nomad. He had established a sort of village 
capital of his possessions, the chief feature of 
which was his own palace. Here he lives dur- 
ing the summers and part of the winters ; 
though once in three years he is compelled to 
spend at least three months in his palace in 
Peking when he comes to do homage to the 
Emperor. 

During one of these visits to Peking the 
Princess sent for me to come to her palace. I 
naturally supposed she was ill, and so took with 
me my medical outfit, but her first greeting was : 

"I am not ill, nor is any member of my family, 
but I wanted to see you to have a talk with you 
about foreign countries." 

She had prepared elaborate refreshments, and 
while we sat eating, she directed the conversation 
towards mines and mining, and then said : 

" My husband, the Prince, is very much inter- 
ested in this subject, and believes that there are 
rich stores of ore on his principality in Mon- 
golia." 



220 Court Life in China 

" Indeed, that is very interesting," I answered. 

" You know, of course, it is a rule," she went 
on to say, " that no prince of the realm is allowed 
to go more than a few miles from the capital 
without special permission from the throne." 

"No, I was not aware of that fact." 

She then went on to say that her husband was 
anxious to attend the St. Louis Exposition, and 
study this subject in America, but so long as 
these hindrances remained it was impossible for 
him to do so. She then said : 

" I am very much interested in the educational 
system of your honourable country, and espe- 
cially in your method of conducting girls' 
schools." 

" Would you not like to come and visit our 
girls' high school ? " I asked. 

" I should be delighted," she replied. 

This she did, and before leaving the capital 
she sent for a Japanese lady teacher whom she 
took with her to her Mongolian home, where she 
established a school for Mongolian girls. 

In this school she had a regular system of 
rules, which did not tally with the undisciplined 
methods of the Mongolians, and it was amusing 
to hear her tell how it was often necessary for the 
Prince to go about in the morning and wake up 
the girls in order to get them into school at nine 
o'clock. 

The next time she came to Peking she brought 



The Princesses — Their Schools 221 

with her seventeen of her brightest girls to see 
the sights of the city and visit some of the 
girls' schools, both Christian and non-Christian. 
Everything was new to them and it was inter- 
esting to hear their remarks as I showed them 
through our home and our high school. When 
the Princess returned to Mongolia she took with 
her a cultured young Chinese lady of unusual 
literary attainments to teach the Chinese classics 
in the school. This is the only school I have 
known that was established by a Manchu princess, 
for Mongolian girls, and taught by Chinese and 
Japanese teachers. This young lady was the 
daughter of the president of the Board of Rites, 
head examiner for literary degrees for all China, 
and was himself a chuang ytian, or graduate of 
the highest standing. Before going, this Chinese 
teacher had small bound feet, but she had not 
been long on the plains before she unbound her 
feet, dressed herself in suitable clothing, and 
went with the Princess and the Japanese teacher 
for a horseback ride across the plains in the early 
morning, a thing which a Chinese lady, under 
ordinary circumstances, is never known to do. 
The school is still growing in size and usefulness. 
Prince Su's third sister is married to a com- 
moner, but as is usual with these ladies who 
marry beneath their own rank, she retains her 
maiden title of Third Princess, by which she is 
always addressed. 



222 Court Life in China 

"How did you obtain your education?" I 
once asked her. 

" During my childhood," she answered, " my 
mother was opposed to having her daughters 
learn to read, but like most wealthy families, 
she had old men come into the palace to read 
stories or recite poetry for our entertainment. I 
not infrequently followed the old men out, bought 
the books from which they read, and then bribed 
some of the eunuchs to teach me to read them. 
In this way I obtained a fair knowledge of the 
Chinese character." 

She is as deeply interested in the new educa- 
tional movement among girls as is her sister. 
When this desire for Western education began, 
she organized a school, in which she has eighty 
girls or more, taken from various grades of society, 
whom she and some of her friends, in addition 
to employing teachers and providing the school- 
rooms, gave a good part of their time to teaching 
the Chinese classics, while a Japanese lady taught 
them calisthenics and the rudiments of Western 
mathematics. 

She is aggressively pro-foreign, and is ready 
to do anything that will contribute to the success 
of the new educational movement, and the free- 
dom of the Chinese woman. On one occasion 
when the Chinese in Peking undertook to 
raise a fund for famine relief, they called a 
large public meeting to which men and women 



The Princesses — Their Schools 223 

were alike invited, the first meeting of the kind 
ever held in Peking. Such a gathering could 
not have occurred before the Boxer rebellion. 
The Third Princess, having promised to help 
provide the programme, took a number of her 
girls, and on a large rostrum, had them go 
through their calisthenic exercises for the enter- 
tainment of the audience. On another occasion 
she took all her girls to a private box at a 
Chinese circus, where men and women acrobats 
and horseback riders performed in a ring not 
unlike that of our own circus riders. In this 
circus small-footed women rode horseback as 
well as the women in our own circus, and one 
woman with bound feet lay down on her back, 
balanced a cart-wheel, weighing at least a hun- 
dred pounds, on her feet, whirling it rapidly all 
the time, and then after it stopped she continued 
to hold it while two women and a child climbed 
on top. The Princess was determined to allow 
her girls to have all the advantages the city 
afforded. 

At the school of this Third Princess I once at- 
tended a unique memorial service. A lady of 
Hang Chou, finding it impossible to secure 
sufficient money by ordinary methods for the 
support of a school that she had established, cut 
a deep gash in her arm and then sat in the 
temple court during the day of the fair, with a 
board beside her on which was inscribed the ex- 



224 Court Life in China 

planation of her unusual conduct. This brought 
her in some three hundred ounces of silver with 
which she provided for her school the first year. 
When it was exhausted and she could get no 
more, she wrote letters to the officials of her 
province, in which she asked for subscriptions 
and urged the importance of female education, 
to which she said she was willing to give 
her life. To her appeal the officials paid no 
heed, and she finally wrote other letters renewing 
her request for help to establish the school, after 
which she committed suicide. The letters were 
sent, and later published in the local and general 
newspapers. Memorial services were held in 
various parts of the empire at all of which 
funds were gathered not only for her school 
but for establishing other schools throughout the 
provinces. 

The school of the Third Princess at which 
this service was held was profusely decorated. 
Chinese flags floated over the gates and door- 
ways. Beautifully written scrolls, telling the 
reason for the service and lauding the virtues of 
the lady, covered the walls of the schoolroom. 
At the second entrance there was a table at 
which sat a scribe who took our name and ad- 
dress and gave us a copy of the " order of ex- 
ercises." Here we were met by the Third 
Princess, who conducted us into the main hall. 
Opposite the doorway was hung a portrait of the 



The Princesses — Their Schools 225 

lady, wreathed in artificial flowers, and painted 
by a Chinese artist. A table stood before it on 
which was a plate of fragrant quinces, candles, 
and burning incense, giving it the appearance 
of a shrine. Pots of flowers were arranged about 
the room, which was unusually clean and beauti- 
ful. The Chinese guests bowed three times be- 
fore the picture on entering the room, which I 
thought a very pretty ceremony. 

The girls of this school, to the number of about 
sixty, appeared in blue uniform, courtesying to 
the guests. Sixteen other girls' schools of Peking 
were represented either by teachers or pupils or 
both. One of the boys' schools came en masse, 
dressed in military uniform, led by a band, and 
a drillmaster with a sword dangling at his side. 
Addresses were made by both ladies and gentle- 
men, chief among whom were the Third Princess 
and the editress of the Woman's Daily News- 
paper, the only woman's daily at that time in the 
world, who urged the importance of the estab- 
lishment and endowment of schools for the edu- 
cation of girls throughout the empire. 



XV 

The Chinese Ladies of Rank 



Though your husband may be wealthy, 

You should never be profuse ; 
There should always be a limit 

To the things you eat and use. 
If your husband should be needy, 

You should gladly share the same, 
And be diligent and thrifty, 

And no other people blame. 
-" The Primer for Girls," Translated by I. T. H 



XV 

THE CHINESE LADIES OF RANK 1 

THE Manchu lady's ideal of beauty is 
dignity, and to this both her deport- 
ment and her costume contribute in a 
well-nigh equal degree. Her hair, put up on 
silver or jade jewelled hairpins, decorated with 
many flowers, is very heavy, and easily tilted to 
one side or the other if not carried with the 
utmost sedateness. Her long garments, reach- 
ing from her shoulders to the floor, give to her 
tall figure an added height, and the central 
elevation of from four to six inches to the soles 
of her daintily embroidered slippers, compel her 
to stand erect and walk slowly and majestically. 
She laughs but little, seldom jests, but preserves 
a serious air in whatever she does. 

The Chinese lady, on the contrary, aspires to 
be petite, winsome, affable and helpless. She 
laughs much, enjoys a joke, and is always good- 
natured and chatty. 

One of their poets thus describes a noted beauty : 

1 Taken from Mrs. Headland's note-book. 
229 



230 Court Life in China 

" At one moment with tears her bright eyes would be 
swimming, 
The next with mischief and fun they'd be brimming. 
Thousands of sonnets were written in praise of them, 
Li Po wrote a song for each separate phase of them. 

"Bashfully, swimmingly, pleadingly, scoffingly, 
Temptingly, languidly, lovingly, laughingly, 
Witchingly, roguishly, playfully, naughtily, 
Willfully, wayward ly, meltingly, haughtily, 
Gleamed the eyes of Yang Kuei Fei. 

" Her ruby lips and peach-bloom cheeks, 
Would match the rose in hue, 
If one were kissed the other speaks, 
With blushes, kiss me too." 

She combs her hair in a neat coil on the back 
of her head, uses few flowers, but instead prefers 
profuse decorations of pearls. Her upper gar- 
ment extends but little below her knees, and her 
lower garment is an accordion-plaited skirt, from 
beneath which the pointed toes of her small 
bound feet appear as she walks or sways on her 
" golden lilies," as if she were a flower blown by 
the wind, to which the Chinese love to compare 
her. Her waist is a " willow waist " in poetry, 
and her " golden lilies," as her tiny feet are often 
called, are not more than two or three inches 
long — so small that it not infrequently requires 
the assistance of a servant or two to help her to 
walk at all. And though she may not need them 



The Chinese Ladies of Rank 231 

she affects to be so helpless as to require their 
aid. 

Until very recently education was discouraged 
rather than sought by the Manchu lady. Many 
of the princesses could not read the simplest 
book nor write a letter to a friend, but depended 
upon educated eunuchs to perform these services 
for them. The Chinese lady on the contrary can 
usually read and write with ease, and the educa- 
tion of some of them is equal to that of a Hanlin. 

Socially the ladies of these two classes never 
meet. Their husbands may be of equal rank 
and well known to each other in official life, but 
the ladies have no wish to meet each other. One 
day while the granddaughter of one of the Chi- 
nese Grand Secretaries was calling upon me, the 
sisters of Prince Ching and Prince Su were an- 
nounced. When they entered I introduced them. 
The dignity of the two princesses when presented 
led me to fear that we would have a cold time to- 
gether. I explained who my Chinese lady friend 
was, and they answered in a formal way (wai 
tou tou j en te y li tdu He pujen te) "the gentle- 
men of our respective households are well ac- 
quainted, not so the ladies," but the ice did not 
melt. For a time I did my best to find a topic 
of mutual interest, but it was like trying to mix 
oil and water. I was about to give up in de- 
spair when my little Chinese friend, observing the 
dilemma in which I was placed, and the effort I 



232 Court Life in China 

was making to relieve the situation, threw herself 
into the conversation with such vigour and vi- 
vacity, and suggested topics of such interest to 
the others as to charm these reserved princesses, 
and it was not long until they were talking to- 
gether in a most animated way. 

One of the Manchu ladies expressed regret at 
the falling of her hair and the fact that she was 
getting bald. " Why," said my little Chinese 
friend, "after a severe illness not long since, I 
lost all my hair, but I received a prescription 
from a friend which restored it all, and just look 
at the result," she continued turning her pretty 
head with its great coils of shiny black hair. "I 
will be delighted to let you have it." The 
Manchu princesses finally rose to depart, and in 
their leave-taking, they were as cordial to my lit- 
tle Chinese friend, who had made herself so 
agreeable, as they were to me, for which I shall 
ever be grateful. 

After they had gone I asked : 

"Why is it that the Manchu and Chinese 
ladies do not intermingle in a social way ? " 

"The cause dates back to the beginning of 
the Manchu dynasty," she responded. "When 
the Chinese men adopted the Manchu style of 
wearing the queue, it was stipulated that they 
should not interfere with the style of the 
woman's dress, and that no Chinese should be 
taken to the palace as concubines or slaves to 




£ S 
. ^ c 

w s 

< -B 
& g 

B. 

°; 

W § 

1—1 .c 

Q « 
< 

M 

co 
W 

s 

U 



The Chinese Ladies of Rank. 233 

the Emperor. We have therefore always held 
ourselves aloof from the Manchus. Our men 
did this to protect us, and as a result no Chinese 
lady has ever been received at court, except, of 
course, the painting teacher of the Empress 
Dowager, who, before she could enter the 
palace, was compelled to unbind her feet, adopt 
the Manchu style of dress and take a Manchu 
name." 

" Is not the Empress Dowager very much op- 
posed to foot-binding ? Why has she not forbid- 
den it?" 

" She has issued edicts recommending them to 
give it up, but to forbid it is beyond her power. 
That would be interfering with the Chinese 
ladies' dress." 

" Do the Manchus consider themselves su- 
perior to the Chinese ? " 

"It is a poor rule that will not work both 
ways. Have you never noticed that in his 
edicts the Emperor speaks of his Manchu slaves 
and his Chinese subjects ? " 

Among my lady friends is one whose father 
died when she was a child, and she was brought 
up in the home of her grandfather who was him- 
self a viceroy. She had always been accustomed 
to every luxury that wealth could buy. Clothed 
in the richest embroidered silks and satins, deco- 
rated with the rarest pearls and precious stones, 
she had serving women and slave girls to wait 



234 Court Life in China 

upon her, and humour her every whim. One 
day when we were talking of the Boxer insur- 
rection she told me the following story : 

" Some years ago," she said, " my steward 
brought me a slave girl whom he had bought 
from her father on the street. She was a bright, 
intelligent and obedient little girl, and I soon 
became very fond of her. She told me one day 
that her grandmother was a Christian, and that 
she had been baptized and attended a Christian 
school. Her father, however, was an opium- 
smoker, and had pawned everything he had, 
and finally when her grandmother was absent 
had taken her and sold her to get money to buy 
opium. She asked me to send a messenger to 
her grandmother and tell her that she had a 
good home. 

" I was delighted to do so for I knew the old 
woman would be distressed lest the child had 
been sold to a life of shame, or had found a 
cruel mistress. Unfortunately, however, my 
messenger could find no trace of the grand- 
mother, as the neighbours informed him that 
she had left shortly after the disappearance of 
the child. 

" As the years passed the child grew into 
womanhood. She was very capable, kind and 
thoughtful for others and I learned to depend 
upon her in many ways. She was very devoted 
to me, and sought to please me in every way 



The Chinese Ladies of Rank 235 

she could. She always spoke of herself as a 
Christian and refused to worship our gods. 
When the Boxer troubles began I took my 
house-servants and went to my grandfather's 
home thinking that the Boxers would not dare 
disturb the households of such great officials as 
the viceroys. But I soon found that they re- 
spected no one who had liberal tendencies. 

" One day there was a proclamation posted to 
the effect that all Christians were to be turned 
over to them, and that any one found concealing 
a Christian would themselves be put to death. 
My grandmother came to my apartments and 
wanted me to send my slave girl to the Boxers. 
We talked about it for some time but I stead- 
fastly refused. When the Boxers had procured all 
they could by that method they announced that 
they were about to make a house-to-house 
search, and any household harbouring Chris- 
tians would be annihilated." 

" But how would they know that your slave 
was a Christian ? " I inquired. 

" Have you not heard," she asked, " that the 
Boxers claimed that after going through certain 
incantations, they could see a cross upon the 
forehead of any who had been baptized ? " 

" And did you believe they could ? " 

" I did then but I do not now. Indeed we all 
did. My grandmother came to me and posi- 
tively forbade me to keep the slave in her home. 



236 Court Life in China 

After she had gone the girl came and knelt at 
my feet and begged me to save her ! How 
could I send her out to death when she had 
been so kind and faithful to me ? I finally de- 
cided upon a plan to save her. I determined to 
flee with her to the home of an uncle who lived 
in a town a hundred miles or more from Peking, 
where I hoped the Boxers were less powerful 
than they were at the capital. 

" This uncle was the lieutenant-governor of 
the province and had always been very fond of 
me, and I knew if I could reach him I should win 
his sympathy and his aid. But how was this to 
be done ? All travellers were suspected, searched 
and examined. For two women to be travelling 
alone, when the country was in such a state of 
unrest, could not but bring upon themselves 
suspicion, and should we be searched, the cross 
upon the forehead would surely be found, and 
we would be condemned to the cruel tortures in 
which the Boxers were said to delight. 

" After much thought and planning the only 
possible method seemed to be to flee as beggars. 
You know women beggars are found upon the 
roads at all times and they excite little suspicion. 
Then in the hot summer it is not uncommon for 
them to wrap their head and forehead in a piece 
of cloth to protect them from the fierce rays of 
the sun. In this way I hoped to conceal the 
cross from observation in case we came into the 



The Chinese Ladies of Rank 237 

presence of the Boxers. We confided our plans 
to a couple of the women servants whom we 
could trust, and asked them to procure proper 
outfits for us. They did so, and oh ! what dirty 
old rags they were. The servants wept as they 
took off and folded up my silk garments and clad 
me in this beggar's garb." 

" But your skin is so soft and fair, not at all 
like the skin of a woman exposed to the sun ; and 
your black, shiny hair is not at all rusty and 
dirty like the hair of a beggar woman. I should 
think these facts would have caused your detec- 
tion," I urged. 

" That was easily remedied. We stained our 
faces, necks, hands and arms, and we took down 
our hair and literally rolled it in dust which the 
servants brought from the street. Oh ! but it 
was nasty ! such an odour ! It was only the sa- 
ving of the life of that faithful slave that could 
have induced me to do it. I had to take off my 
little slippers and wrap my feet in dirty rags such 
as beggars wear. We could take but a little 
copper cash with us. To be seen with silver 
or gold would have at once brought suspicion 
upon us, while bank-notes were useless in those 
days. 

" In the early morning, before any one was 
astir we were let out of a back gate. It was the 
first time I had ever walked on the street. I had 
always been accustomed to going in my closed 



238 Court Life in China 

cart with outriders and servants. I shrank from 
staring eyes, and thought every glance was sus- 
picious. My slave was more timid than I and so 
I must take the initiative. I had been accustomed 
to seeing street beggars from behind the screened 
windows of my cart ever since I was a child and 
so I knew how I ought to act, but at first it was 
difficult indeed. Soon, however, we learned to 
play our part, though it seems now like a hideous 
dream. We kept on towards the great gate 
through which we passed out of the city on to 
the highway which led to our destination. 

" The first time we met a Boxer procession my 
knees knocked together in my fear of detection 
but they passed by without giving us a glance. 
We met them often after this, and before we fin- 
ished our journey I learned to doubt their claim 
to detect Christians by the sign of the cross. 

" We ate at the roadside booths, slept often in 
a gateway or by the side of a wall under the 
open sky, and after several days' wandering, we 
reached the yamen of my uncle. But we dare 
not enter and reveal our identity, lest we impli- 
cate them, for we found the Boxers strong every- 
where, and even the officials feared their prowess. 
We hung about the yamen begging in such a 
way as not to arouse suspicion, until an old serv- 
ant who had been in the family for many years, 
and whom I knew well, came upon the street. 
I followed him begging until we were out of ear- 



The Chinese Ladies of Rank 239 

shot of others, and then told him in a singsong, 
whining tone, such as beggars use, who I was 
and why I was there, and asked him to let my 
uncle know, and said that if they would open the 
small gate in the evening we would be near and 
could enter unobserved. 

"At first he could not believe it was I, for by 
this time we indeed looked like veritable beggars, 
but he was finally convinced and promised to tell 
my uncle. After nightfall he opened the gate 
and led us in by a back passage to my aunt's 
apartments where she and my uncle were wait- 
ing for me. They both burst into tears as they 
beheld my plight. Two old serving women, who 
had been many years in the family, helped us to 
change our clothes and gave us a bath and food. 
My feet had suffered the most. They were 
swollen and ulcerated and the dirty rags and 
dust adhering to the sores had left them in a 
wretched condition. It took many baths before 
we were clean, and weeks before my feet were 
healed. 

" We remained with my uncle until the close 
of the Boxer trouble, and until my grandfather's 
return from Hsian where he had gone with the 
Empress Dowager and the court, and then I 
came back to Peking." 

" Your grandmother must have felt ashamed 
when she heard how hard it had gone with you," 
I remarked. 



240 Court Life in China 

" We never mentioned the matter when talking 
together. That was a time when every one was 
for himself. Death stared us all in the face." 

" Where is your slave girl now ? I should 
like to see her," I remarked. 

" After the troubles were over I married her to 
a young man of my uncle's household. I will 
send for her and bring her to see you." 

She did so. I found she had forgotten much 
of what she had learned of Christianity, but she 
remembered that there was but one God and that 
Jesus Christ was His Son to whom alone she 
should pray. She also remembered that as a 
small child she had been baptized, and that in 
school she had been taught that " we should 
love one another " ; this was about the extent of 
her Gospel, but it had touched the heart of her 
charming little mistress and had saved her life. 

There were sometimes amusing things hap- 
pened when these Chinese ladies called. My 
husband among other things taught astronomy 
in the university. He had a small telescope 
with which he and the students often examined 
the planets, and they were especially interested 
in Jupiter and his moons. One evening, con- 
trary to her custom, this same friend was calling 
after dark, and when the students had finished 
with Jupiter and his moons, my husband invited 
us to view them, as they were especially clear 
on that particular evening. 



The Chinese Ladies of Rank 241 

After she had looked at them for a while, and 
as my husband was closing up the telescope, she 
exclaimed : " That is the kind of an instrument 
that some foreigners sent as a present to my 
grandfather while he was viceroy, but it was 
larger than this one." 

"And did he use it? " asked my husband. 

" No, we did not know what it was for. Be- 
sides my grandfather was too busy with the 
affairs of the government to try to under- 
stand it." 

" And where is it now ? " asked Mr. Headland, 
thinking that the viceroy might be willing to 
donate it to the college. 

" I do not know," she answered. " The serv- 
ants thought it was a pump and tried to pump 
water with it, but it would not work. It is 
probably among the junk in some of the back 
rooms." 

" I wonder if we could not find it and fix it 
up," my husband persisted. 

" I am afraid not," she answered. " The last 
I saw of it, the servants had taken the glass out 
of the small end and were using it to look at in- 
sects on the bed." 

One day when one of my friends came to call 
I said to her : " It is a long time since I have 
seen you. Have you been out of the city ? " 

" Yes, I have been spending some months with 
my father-in-law, the viceroy of the Canton prov- 



242 



Court Life in China 



inces. His wife has died, and I have returned to 
Peking to get him a concubine." 

" How old is he?" I inquired. 

" Seventy-two years," she replied. 

"And how will you undertake to secure a 
concubine for such an old man ? " 

" I shall probably buy one." 

A few weeks afterwards she called again hav- 
ing with her a good-looking young woman of 
about seventeen, her hair beautifully combed, 
her face powdered and painted, and clothed in 
rich silk and satin garments, whom she intro- 
duced as the young lady procured for her father- 
in-law. She explained that she had bought her 
from a poor country family for three hundred and 
fifty ounces of silver. 

" Don't you think it is cruel for parents to sell 
their daughters in this way ? " I asked. 

" Perhaps," she answered. " But with the 
money they received for her, they can buy land 
enough to furnish them a good support all their 
life. She will always have rich food, fine cloth- 
ing and an easy time, with nothing to do but en- 
joy herself, while if she had remained at home 
she must have married some poor man who 
might or might not have treated her well, and for 
whom she would have to work like a slave. 
Now she is nominally a slave with nothing to do 
and with every comfort, in addition to what she 
has done for her family." 



The Chinese Ladies of Rank 243 

While we were having tea she asked to see 
Mr. Headland, as many of the older of my friends 
did. I invited him in, and as he entered the 
dining-room the young woman stepped out into 
the hall. 

My friend greeted my husband, and with a 
mysterious nod of her head in the direction of the 
young woman she said : " Chiu shih na ke t — 
that's it." 



XVI 
The Social Life of the Chinese Woman 



The manners and customs of the Chinese, and their 
social characteristics, have employed many pens and many 
tongues, and will continue to furnish an inexhaustible 
field for students of sociology, of religion, of philosophy, 
of civilization, for centuries to come. Such studies, how- 
ever, scarcely touch the province of the practical, at least 
as yet, for one principal reason — that the subject is so vast, 
the data are so infinite, as to overwhelm the student rather 
than assist him in sound generalizations. 

— A. R. Colquhoun in " China in Transformation." 



XVI 

THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CHINESE WOMAN 

THE home life of a people is too sacred to 
be touched except by the hand of friend- 
ship. Our doors are closed to strangers, 
locked to enemies, and opened only to those of 
our own race who are in harmony and sympathy 
with us. What then shall we say when people of 
an alien race come seeking admission ? They 
must bring some social distinction, — letters of in- 
troduction, or an ability to help us in ways in 
which we cannot help ourselves. 

In the case of a people as exclusive as the Chi- 
nese this is especially true, so that with the ex- 
ception of one or two women physicians and the 
wife of one of our diplomats no one has ever been 
admitted in a social as well as professional way 
to the women's apartments of the homes of the 
better class of the Chinese people. 

A Chinese home is different from our own. It 
is composed of many one-story buildings, around 
open courts, one behind the other, and sometimes 
covers several acres of ground. Then it is di- 
vided into men's and women's apartments, the 
men receiving their friends in theirs and the 
women likewise receiving their friends by a side 

247 



248 Court Life in China 

gate in their own apartments, which are at the 
rear of the dwelling. A wealthy man usually, in 
addition to his wife, has one or more concubines, 
and each of these ladies has an apartment of her 
own for herself and her children, — though all the 
children of all the concubines reckon as belong- 
ing to the first wife. 

I have heard Sir Robert Hart tell an amusing 
incident which occurred in Peking. He said 
that the Chinese minister appointed to the court 
of Saint James came to call on him before setting 
out upon his journey. After conversing for some 
time he said : 

" I should be glad to see Lady Hart. I be- 
lieve it is customary in calling on a foreign gen- 
tleman to see his lady, is it not ? " 

"It is," said Sir Robert, "and I should be de- 
lighted to have you see her, but Lady Hart is in 
England with our children, and has not been 
here for twenty years." 

" Ah, indeed, then perhaps I might see your 
second wife." 

" That you might, if I had one. But the cus- 
toms of our country do not allow us to have a 
second wife. Indeed they would imprison us if 
we were to have two wives." 

" How singular," said the official with a nod 
of his head. " You do not appreciate the advan- 
tages of this custom of ours." 

That there are advantages in this custom from 



Social Life of the Chinese Woman 249 

the Chinese point of view, I have no doubt. But 
from certain things I have heard I fear there 
are disadvantages as well. One day the head 
eunuch from the palace of one of the leading 
princes in Peking came to ask my wife, who was 
their physician, to go to see some of the women 
or children who were ill. It was drawing near 
to the New Year festival and, of course, they had 
their own absorbing topics of conversation in the 
servants' courts. I said to him : 

"The Prince has a good many children, has 
he not ? " 

"Twenty-three," he answered. 

" How many concubines has he ? " I inquired. 

"Three," he replied, "but he expects to take 
on two more after the holidays." 

" Doesn't it cause trouble in a family for a 
man to have so many women about? I should 
think they would be jealous of each other." 

"Ah," said he, with a wave of his hand and a 
shake of his head, " that is a topic that is diffi- 
cult to discuss. Naturally if this woman sees 
him taking to that woman, this one is going to 
eat vinegar." 

They do " eat vinegar," but perhaps as little 
of it as any people who live in the way in which 
they live, for the Chinese have organized their 
home life as nearly on a governmental basis 
as any people in the world. 

In addition to the wife and concubines, each 



250 Court Life in China 

son when he marries brings his wife home to a 
parental court, and all these sisters-in-law, or 
daughters-in-law add so much to the complica- 
tions of living, for each must have her own ret- 
inue of servants. 

Young people in China are all engaged by 
their parents without their knowledge or con- 
sent. This was very unsatisfactory to the young 
people of the old regime, and it is being modi- 
fied in the new. One day one of my students in 
discussing this matter said to me : 

" Our method of getting a wife is very much 
better than either the old Chinese method or 
your foreign method." 

" How is that?" I asked. 

" Well," said he, " according to the old Chi- 
nese custom a man could never see his wife un- 
til she was brought to his house. But we can 
see the girls in public meetings, we have sisters 
in the girls' school, they have brothers in the col- 
lege, and when we go home during vacation we 
can learn all about each other." 

" But how do you consider it better than our 
method ? " I persisted. 

" Why, you see, when you have found the girl 
you want, you have to go and get her yourself, 
while we can send a middleman to do it for us." 

I still argued that by our method we could be- 
come better acquainted with the young lady. 

"Yes," he said, "that is true; but doesn't it 



Social Life of the Chinese Woman 251 

make you awfully mad if you ask a lady to 
marry you and she refuses?" and it must be 
confessed that this was a difficult question to 
answer without compromising one's self. 

The rigour of the old regime was apparently 
modified by giving the young lady a chance to 
refuse. About ten days before the marriage, two 
ladies are selected by the mother of the young 
man to carry a peculiar ornament made of ebony 
and jade, or jade alone, or red lacquer, to the 
home of the prospective bride. This ornament 
is called the ju yi, which means " According to 
my wishes." If the lady receives it into her own 
hands it signifies her willingness to become his 
bride; if she rejects it, the negotiations are at an 
end, though I have never heard of a girl who re- 
fused the ju yi} 

Very erroneous ideas of the life and occupa- 
tions of the Chinese ladies of the noble and 
official classes are held by those not conversant 
with their home life. The Chinese woman is 
commonly regarded as little better than a se- 
cluded slave, who whiles away the tedious hours 
at an embroidery frame, where with her needle 
she works those delicate and intricate pieces of 
embroidery for which she is famous throughout 
the world. In reality, a Chinese lady has little 
time to give to such work. Her life is full of 
the most exacting social duties. Few American 

1 The remainder of the chapter is from Mrs. Headland's note-book. 



252 Court Life in China 

ladies in the whirl of society in Washington or 
New York have more social functions to attend 
or duties to perform. I have often been present 
in the evening when the head eunuch brought to 
the ruling lady of the home (and the head of the 
home in China is the woman, not the man) an 
ebony tablet on which was written in red ink the 
list of social functions the ladies were to attend 
the following day. 

She would select from the list such as she and 
her unmarried daughters could attend, — the 
daughters always going with their mother and not 
with their sisters-in-law, — then she would appor- 
tion the other engagements to her daughters-in- 
law, who would attend them in her stead. 

The Chinese lady in Peking sleeps upon a brick 
bed, one half of the room being built up a foot and 
a half above the floor, with flues running through 
it ; and in the winter a fire is built under the bed, 
so that, instead of having one hot brick in her 
bed, she has a hundred. She rises about eight. 
She has a large number of women servants, a 
few slave girls, and if she belongs to the family 
of a prince, she has several eunuchs, these latter 
to do the heavy work about the household. 
Each servant has her own special duties, and 
resents being asked to perform those of another. 
When my lady awakes a servant brings her a 
cup of hot tea and a cake made of wheat or rice 
flour. After eating this a slave girl presents her 



Social Life of the Chinese Woman 253 

with a tiny pipe with a long stem from which she 
takes a few whirls. Two servants then appear 
with a large polished brass basin of very hot 
water, towels, soaps, preparations of honey to be 
used on her face and hands while they are still 
warm and moist from the bathing. After the 
bath they remove the things and disappear, and 
two other women take their places, with a tray 
on which are combs, brushes, hair-pomades, and 
the framework and accessories needed for 
combing her hair. Then begins a long and 
tedious operation that may continue for two hours. 
Finally the hair is ready for the ornaments, 
jewels and flowers which are brought by another 
servant on a large tray. The mistress selects the 
ones she wishes, placing them in her hair with 
her own hands. 

Some of these flowers are exquisite. The 
Chinese are expert at making artificial flowers 
which are true to nature in every detail. Often 
above the flower a beautiful butterfly is poised 
on a delicate spring, and looks so natural that it 
is easy to be deceived into believing it to be 
alive. When the jasmine is in bloom beautiful 
creations are made of these tiny flowers by 
means of standards from which protrude fine 
wires on which the flowers are strung in the 
shape of butterflies or other symbols, and the 
flowers massed in this way make a very effective 
ornament. With the exception of the jasmine 



,„ C U* „ CM„, 

the flowers used in the hair are all artificial, 
though natural flowers are worn in season — 
roses in summer, orchids in late summer, and 
chrysanthemums in autumn. 

The prevailing idea with the Chinese ladies is 
that the foreign woman does not comb her hair. 
I have often heard my friends apologizing to 
ladies whom they have brought to see me for the 
first time, and on whom they wanted me to 
make a good impression, by saying : 

" You must not mind her hair ; she is really so 
busy she has no time to comb it. All her time is 
spent in acts of benevolence." 

At the first audience when the Empress 
Dowager received the foreign ladies, she pre- 
sented each of them with two boxes of combs, one 
ivory inlaid with gold, the other ordinary hard 
wood, and the set was complete even to the fine 
comb. One cannot but wonder if Her Majesty 
had not heard of the untidy locks of the foreign 
woman, which she attributed to a lack of proper 
combs. 

After the hair has been properly combed and 
ornamented, cosmetics of white and carmine are 
brought for the face and neck. The Manchu 
lady uses these in great profusion, her Chinese 
sister more sparingly. No Chinese lady, unless 
a widow or a woman past sixty, is supposed to 
appear in the presence of her family without a 
full coating of powder and paint. A lady one 



Social Life of the Chinese Woman 255 

day complained to me of difficulty in lifting her 
eyelids, and consulted me as to the reason. 

" Perhaps," said I, " they are partially paralyzed 
by the lead in your cosmetics. Wash off the 
paint and see if the nerves do not recover their 
tone." 

" But," said she, " I would not dare appear in 
the presence of my husband or family without 
paint and powder ; it would not be respectable." 

The final touch to the face is the deep carmine 
spot on the lower lip. 

The robing then begins. And what beautiful 
robes they are ! the softest silks, over which are 
worn in summer the most delicate of embroidered 
grenadines, or in winter, rich satins lined with costly 
furs, each season calling for a certain number and 
kind. She then decorates herself with her jewels, 
— earrings, bracelets, beads, rings, charms, em- 
broidered bags holding the betel-nut, and the 
tiny mirror in its embroidered case with silk tas- 
sels. When these are hung on the buttons of 
her dress her outfit is complete, and she arises 
from her couch a wonderful creation, from her 
glossy head, with every hair in place, to the toe 
of her tiny embroidered slipper. But it has 
taken the time of a half-dozen servants for three 
hours to get these results. 

To one accustomed to the Chinese or Manchu 
mode of dress, she appears very beautiful. The 
rich array of colours, the embroidered gowns, and 



256 Court Life in China 

the bright head-dress, make a striking picture. 
Often as the ladies of a home or palace came out on 
the veranda to greet me, or bid me adieu, I have 
been impressed with their wonderful beauty, to 
which our own dull colours, and cloth goods, 
suffer greatly in comparison, and I could not 
blame these good ladies for looking upon our 
toilets with more or less disdain. 

It is now after eleven o'clock and her breakfast 
is ready to be served in another room. Word 
that the leading lady of the household is about to 
appear is sent to the other apartments. Hurried 
finishing touches are given to toilets, for all 
daughters, daughters-in-law and grandchildren 
must be ready to receive her in the outer room 
when she appears leaning on the arms of two 
eunuchs if she is a princess, or on two stout 
serving women if a Chinese. 

According to her rank, each one in turn 
takes a step towards her and gives a low courtesy 
in which the left knee touches the floor. Even 
the children go through this same formality. 
All are gaily dressed, with hair bedecked and 
faces painted like her own. She inclines her 
head but slightly. These are the members of 
her household over whom she has sway — her 
little realm. While her mother-in-law lived she 
was under the same rigorous rule. 

In China where there are so many women in 
the home it is necessary to have a head — one 



Social Life of the Chinese Woman 257 

who without dispute rules with autocratic sway. 
This is the mother-in-law. When she dies the 
first wife takes her place as head of the family. 
A concubine may be the favourite of the hus- 
band. He may give her fine apartments to 
live in, many servants to wait on her, and 
every luxury he can afford ; but there his 
power ends. The first wife is head of the 
household, is legally mother of all the children 
born to any or all of the concubines her hus- 
band possesses. The children all call her mother, 
and the inferior wives recognize her as their mis- 
tress. She and her daughters, and daughters-in- 
law, attend social functions, receive friends, ex- 
tend hospitality ; but the concubines have no 
place in this, unless by her permission. When 
the time comes for selecting wives for her sons, it 
is the first wife who does it, although she may be 
childless herself. It is to her the brides of these 
sons are brought, and to her all deference is due. 
In rare cases, where the concubine has had the 
good fortune to supply the heir to the throne or 
to a princely family, she is raised to the position 
of empress or princess. But this is seldom done, 
and is usually remembered against the woman. 
She is never received with the same feeling as if 
she had been first wife. 

One day I was asked to go to a palace to see 
a concubine who was ill. In such cases I always 
went directly to the Princess, and she took me to 



258 Court Life in China 

see the sick one. As we entered the room there 
was a nurse standing with a child in her arms, 
and the Princess called my attention to a blemish 
on its face. 

" Can it be removed ? " she asked. 

I looked at it and, seeing that it would require 
but a minor operation, told her it could. 

While attending to the patient, the nurse, fear- 
ing that the child would be hurt, left the room 
and another entered with another child. 

" Now," said the Princess when we had finished 
with the patient, " we will attend to the child." 
And she called the woman to her. 

" But," said the woman, " this is not the child." 

" There," said the Princess, " you see I do not 
know my own children." 

But I left our friend receiving the morning 
salutations of her household. These over, she 
dismisses them to their own apartments, where 
each mother sits down with her own children 
to her morning meal, waited on by her own 
servants. If there are still unmarried daughters, 
they remain with their mother ; if none, she eats 
alone. 

Since Peking is in the same latitude as Phila- 
delphia my lady has the same kinds of fruit — 
apples, peaches, pears, apricots, the most de- 
licious grapes, and persimmons as large as the 
biggest tomato you ever saw ; indeed, the Chi- 
nese call the tomato the western red persimmon. 



Social Life of the Chinese Woman 259 

She has mutton from the Mongolian sheep (the 
finest I have ever eaten), beef, pork or lamb ; 
chicken, goose or duck ; hare, pheasant or deer, 
or fish of whatever kind she may choose. Of 
course these are all prepared after the Chinese 
style, and be it said to the credit of their cooks 
that our children are always ready to leave our 
own table to partake of Chinese food. 

After her meal she lingers for a few minutes 
over her cup of tea and her pipe. In the mean- 
time her cart or sedan chair is prepared. Her 
outriders are ready with their horses ; the 
eunuchs, women and slave girls who are to at- 
tend her, don their proper clothing and prepare 
the changes of raiment needed for the various 
functions of the day. One takes a basin and 
towels, another powder and rouge-boxes, another 
the pipe and embroidered tobacco pouch, not 
even forgetting the silver cuspidor, all of which 
will be needed. When she eats, a servant gives 
her a napkin to spread over her gown ; after she 
has finished, another brings a basin of hot water, 
from which a towel is wrung with which she gently 
wipes her mouth and hands. Another brings 
her a glass of water, or she washes out her mouth 
with tea, and finally with the little mirror and 
rouge-box, while she still sits at table, she touches 
up her face with powder and she puts the paint 
upon her lip if it has disappeared. 

When ready to start, her cart or chair is drawn 



26o 



Court Life in China 



up as close as possible to the gate of the women's 
apartments. A screen of blue silk eighteen or 
twenty feet long and six feet high, fastened to 
two wooden standards, is held by eunuchs to 
screen her while she enters the cart. The chair 
can be used only by princesses or wives of 
viceroys or members of the Grand Council. But 
whether chair or cart it is lined and cushioned 
with scarlet satin in summer, and in winter with 
fur. It is an accomplishment to enter a cart 
gracefully, but years of practice enable her to do 
so, and as soon as she is seated in Buddhist 
fashion, the curtain is dropped ; her attendant 
seats herself cross-legged in front ; several male 
servants rush up, seize the shafts of the cart, 
place the mule between them, fasten the buckles 
(it reminds one of the fire department), the driver 
takes his place at the lines, two other male serv- 
ants take hold of the sides of the mule's bridle, 
and all is in readiness to start. Female servants 
and slave girls crowd into other carts, outriders 
mount their mules, and the cavalcade starts with 
my lady's cart ahead. 

As they pass along the streets they are re- 
marked upon by all foot-passengers, and as they 
near their destination, a courier on horseback 
spurs up his steed, makes a wild dash forward, 
leaps from his horse, and announces to the gate- 
keeper that the Princess will soon arrive. The 
news is at once taken to the servants of the 



Social Life of the Chinese Woman 261 

women's apartments, where the name is given to 
a eunuch, who bears it to his mistress. 

In the meantime the party has arrived. The 
mule is unhitched, cart drawn to the gate, screen 
spread, servant descends from front, and the 
Princess with the help of a couple of eunuchs is 
escorted through a long covered walk into the 
court, where the ladies of the household are 
waiting on the veranda to receive her. As she 
enters the gateway the hostess begins slowly to 
descend the steps. The others follow, and they 
meet in the centre of the court. Low courtesies 
are made by each and formal inquiries as to each 
other's health. There is a short stop and certain 
formalities before the guest will ascend the steps 
ahead of the hostess. The same occurs again 
on entering the reception hall, and taking the 
seat of honour. The luckless foreigner sometimes 
makes the mistake of conceding to her guest's 
modesty and allows her to take a lower seat, 
which is a grievous offense, and she is only par- 
doned on the plea that she is an outside bar- 
barian, and does not understand the rules of 
polite society. 

After she is seated tea is served, and servants 
bring in trays of sweetmeats, fruit, nuts, dried 
melon seeds, candied fruits and small cakes. 
One of these nuts is unique. It is an " English 
walnut " in which, after the outer hull is removed, 
the shell is self-cracked, and folds back in places 



262 Court Life in China 

so that the kernel appears. While partaking of 
these delicacies the object of the visit is an- 
nounced, which is that her son is to be married 
on a certain date. Of course official announce- 
ments will be sent later, but she wishes to ask if 
her hostess will act as one of her representatives 
to carry the ju yi to the young lady's home. 

After the ladies have chatted for a time about 
the latest official appointments, some court gos- 
sip, the latest fashion in robe ornamentation, and 
the newspaper news at home and abroad — for the 
Chinese have ten or a dozen newspapers in 
Peking, among which is the first woman's daily 
in the world — the hostess invites her guest to see 
her garden. They pass through a gateway into 
a court in which are great trees, shrubbery, fish- 
ponds spanned by marble bridges, covered 
walks, beautiful rockeries, wistaria vines laden 
with long clusters of blossoms, summer-houses, 
miniature mountains, and flowers of all kinds — a 
dream of beauty and loveliness. After returning 
to the house another cup of tea is served, and the 
guest rises to leave. But before doing so her 
servants bring in a bundle of clothing, and there 
in the presence of her hostess her outer robes are 
changed for others of a more official character. 

Her next call is at the birthday celebration of 
the mother of one of the highest officials in the 
capital. I was present when she arrived. In- 
stead of entering by the front gate, she went by a 



Social Life of the Chinese Woman 263 

private entrance directly to the apartments of her 
hostess. Many guests (all gentlemen) were as- 
sembled in the front court, which was covered by 
a mat pavilion and converted into a theatre. 
The court was several feet lower than the adjoin- 
ing house, the front windows of which were all re- 
moved and it was used for the accommodation of 
the lady guests. On the walls of the temporary 
structure hung red satin and silk banners on 
which were pinned ideographs cut out of gold 
foil or black velvet, expressive of beautiful senti- 
ments and good wishes for many happy returns 
of the day. The Emperor, wishing to do this offi- 
cial honour, has informed him that on his mother's 
birthday an imperial present will be sent her 
which is a greater compliment than if sent to the 
official himself. 

It was a gala scene. Fresh guests arrived 
every minute. The ladies in their most graceful 
and dignified courtesies were constantly bending 
as other guests were announced, while the gentle- 
men, with low bows and each shaking his own 
hands, received their friends. The clothes of the 
men, though of a more sombre hue, were richer 
in texture than those of the women. Heavy 
silks and satins, embroidered with dragons in 
gold thread, indicated that this one was a mem- 
ber of the imperial clan, while others equally rich 
were worn by the other gentlemen, each em- 
broidered with the insignia of his rank. Hats 



264 Court Life in China 

adorned with red tassels, peacock feathers in jade 
holders, and the button denoting the rank of the 
wearer, were worn by all, as it would be a breach 
of etiquette to remove the hat in the presence of 
one's host. 

It would also be bad form for the gentlemen to 
raise their eyes to where the ladies were seated ; 
just as the latter, who must look over the heads 
of the men to view the theatre, would not be 
caught allowing their eyes to dwell upon any 
one. But no doubt these gentle little ladies have 
their own curiosity, and some means of finding 
out who's who among that court full of dragon- 
draped pillars of state ; for I have never failed to 
receive a ready answer when I inquired as to the 
name of some handsome or distinguished-look- 
ing guest whose identity I wished to learn. 

The theatre goes on interminably. Like my 
lady, they change their clothes, and the scenery, 
in full view of the audience. The plays are 
mostly historical, the women's parts being taken 
by men, as women are not allowed to go on the 
stage. One daring company, in imitation of the 
foreign custom, had a woman take one of the 
parts ; but a special order from the viceroy put 
the company out of commission, and the leader 
in prison. 

The guests were not expected to sit quietly 
watching the play, but moved about greeting 
each other and chatting at will. Servants 



Social Life of the Chinese Woman 265 

brought tea and sweetmeats and finally a ban- 
quet was served. Near the close of the feast it 
was announced that the imperial present was 
coming, and the members of the household dis- 
appeared. The deep boom of the drums and the 
honk of the great horns were heard distinctly as 
they entered the street, and soon the yellow 
imperial chair, with its thirty-six bearers in the 
royal livery, moved slowly towards us between 
two rows of the male members of the household 
who had gone out and were kneeling on both 
sides of the street, knocking their heads as the 
chair passed them. The great gates were thrown 
open and there in the gateway the female mem- 
bers of the family knelt and kotowed as the 
chair passed by. 

The presents were taken into a room specially 
prepared for their reception. The head imperial 
eunuch placed them in position, and, with a low 
obeisance, departed, the richer by several hun- 
dred ounces of silver. The gentlemen guests 
were first invited to view these tokens of imperial 
favour. In order of their rank they entered, 
prostrating themselves before them. Later we 
ladies were invited into the room, where the 
Chinese all kotowed. What now were these 
wonderful gifts before which these men and 
women of rank and noble birth were falling upon 
their faces ? 

They were two squares of red paper, eighteen 



266 Court Life in China 

inches across, printed in outline of the imperial 
dragon, on which the characters for long life and 
happiness were written with the imperial pen ; and 
a small yellow satin box in which sat a little gold 
Buddha not more than an inch in height 1 It 
was the thought, not the value, which elicited all 
this appreciation. 

Shall we go with this busy little princess to an- 
other festal occasion ? I was with her again. 
It was at the home of the sister of one of the 
sweetest little princesses in the whole empire. 
Her baby was a month old and she was celebra- 
ting what they call the full month feast. Instead, 
however, of having the usual feasting and theat- 
ricals, the mother, who, for days after her child 
was born, lay at death's door, sent out invita- 
tions to her friends to come and fast and give 
thanks to the gods for sparing her life. 

Though the child was a month old the mother 
was too wan and weak to leave her couch. She 
was dressed, however, in festal robes, and re- 
ceived her guests with many gracious words and 
apologies. Of course only ladies were present. 
The great covered court was converted into a 
large shrine. One could imagine they were 
looking into the main hall of a temple, only that 
everything was so clean and beautiful. From 
the centre of the shrine a Goddess of Mercy 
looked down complacently upon the array of 
fruit, nuts, sweetmeats and cakes spread out be- 



Social Life of the Chinese Woman 267 

fore her. Many candles in their tall candlesticks 
were burning on every side. Before her was a 
great bronze incense-burner, from which many 
sticks of incense sent out their fragrant odour on 
the air. As each guest passed through the court, 
she took a stick from the pile, lit it, and, with a 
word of prayer, added it to the number. 

After the guests had all arrived a princess — 
sister of the hostess — accompanied by two of the 
leading guests, descended into the paved court 
and took her place before the altar. Deep-toned 
bells were touched by small boys whose shaven 
heads and priestly robes denoted that they, like 
little Samuel, were being brought up within the 
courts of the temple. The Princess took a great 
bunch of incense in her two hands, one of her 
attendants lit it with a torch prepared for that 
purpose, the flame and smoke ascended amid the 
deep tones of the bells, as she prostrated herself 
before the goddess. She looked like a beautiful 
fairy herself as she stood with the flaming bunch 
of incense held high above her head. Three 
times she prostrated herself and nine times she 
bent forward, fulfilling all the requirements of the 
law. 

At the close of this ceremony the ladies were 
invited to partake of a feast prepared wholly of 
vegetables and vegetable oils. It requires much 
more skill to prepare such a feast than when 
meat and animal oils are used. The food fur- 



268 Court Life in China 

nished interesting topics for discussion. Most 
of it was prepared by various temples, each be- 
ing celebrated for some particular dish, which it 
was asked to provide for the occasion. 

It is not uncommon for a Chinese lady to take 
upon herself a vow in which she promises the 
gods to observe certain days of each month as 
fast days, on condition that they restore to health 
a mother, father, husband or child. No matter 
what banquet she attends she need only mention 
to her hostess that she has a vow and she is 
made the chief guest, helping others but eating 
nothing herself. After this full month feast the 
baby was seen, its presents admired, the last cup 
of tea drunk, the farewells said, and we all re- 
turned home. 



XVII 

The Chinese Ladies — Their Ills 



My home is girdled by a limpid stream, 

And there in summer days life's movements pause, 

Save where some swallow flits from beam to beam, 
And the wild sea-gull near and nearer draws. 

The good wife rules a paper board for chess ; 

The children beat a fish-hook out of wire ; 
My ailments call for physic more or less, 

What else should this poor frame of mine require ? 
— " Tu Fu," Translated by Herbert A. Giles. 



XVII 

THE CHINESE LADIES— THEIR ILLS 1 

ONE day a eunuch dashed into the back 
gate of our compound in Peking, rode 
up to the door of the library, dismounted 
from his horse, and handed a letter in a red en- 
velope to the house servant who met him on the 
steps. 

" What is the matter?" asked the boy. 

" The Princess is ill," replied the servant. 

" What Princess ? " further inquired the boy. 

" Our Princess," was the reply. 

" Oh, you are from the palace near the west 
gate ? " 

" Yes," and the boy and the servant continued 
their conversation until the former had learned 
all that the letter contained, whereupon he brought 
me the message. 

I opened the letter, written in the Chinese 
ideographs, and called the messenger in. 

" Is the Princess very ill ? " I inquired. 

"Not very," he answered, "but she has been 
indisposed for several days." 

"When does she want me to go ? " I inquired, 

1 Taken from Mrs. Headland's note-book. 
271 



272 Court Life in China 

for I had long ago learned that a few inquiries 
often brought out interesting and valuable in- 
formation. 

" At once," he answered ; " the cart will be here 
in a few minutes." 

By the time I had made ready my medical 
outfit the cart had arrived. It was very much 
like a great Saratoga trunk on two wheels. It 
was without seat and without springs, but filled 
with thick cushions, and as I had learned to sit 
tailor fashion it was not entirely uncomfortable 
to ride in. It had gauze curtains in summer, 
and was lined with quilted silk or fur in winter, 
and was a comfortable conveyance. 

When I reached the palace I was met by the 
head eunuch, who conducted me at once to the 
apartments of the Princess. Her reception 
room was handsomely furnished with rich, carved, 
teak-wood furniture after the Manchu fashion, 
with one or two large, comfortable, leather- 
covered easy chairs of foreign make. Clocks 
sat upon the tables and window-sills, and fine 
Swiss watches hung on the walls. Beautiful jade 
and other rich Chinese ornaments were arranged 
in a tasteful way about the room. On the wall 
hung a picture painted by the Empress Dowager, 
a gift to the Prince on his birthday. 

After a moment's waiting the Princess ap- 
peared attended by her women and slave girls. 

" I beg your pardon for not having my hair 



The Chinese Ladies — Their Ills 273 

properly dressed," she said, as she took my 
hands in hers, the custom of these Manchu prin- 
cesses and even the Empress Dowager herself, 
in greeting foreign ladies. " I welcome you 
back to Peking after your summer vacation." 

When the usual salutations had been passed 
she told me her trouble and I gave her the 
proper medicine, with minute instructions as to 
how to take it, which I also repeated to her 
women. 

" The cause of my illness," she explained, " is 
over-fatigue. I had to be present at court on 
the eighth of the eighth month and I became 
very tired from standing all day." 

" But could you not sit down ? " I asked. 

" Not in the presence of the Empress Dowager," 
she replied. 

" Of course, I know you could not sit down in 
the presence of Her Majesty, but could you not 
withdraw and rest a while?" I inquired. 

" Not that day. It was a busy and tiresome 
day for us all," she replied. 

While we were talking the young Princess, 
her son's wife, came in and greeted her mother- 
in-law in a formal but kindly way, and gave her 
hands to me just as the Princess had done. 
She remained standing all the time she was in the 
room, as did four of the secondary princesses or 
wives of her husband. They were all beautifully 
dressed, but they are beneath the Princess in 



274 Court Life in China 

rank, and so must stand in her presence. If the 
Prince's mother had come in, as she often did 
when I was there, the Princess would have to 
stand and wait on her. All Manchu families are 
very particular in this respect. 

"You will be interested," said the Princess, 
"in one phase of our visit to the palace." Then 
turning to one of her women she said : " Bring 
me those two pairs of shoes." 

" These," she explained, " are like some made 
by my mother-in-law and myself as presents for 
the Empress Dowager. On the eighth of the 
eighth month we have a feast, when the ladies of 
the royal household are invited into the palace, 
and our custom is for each of us to present Her 
Majesty with a pair of shoes." 

The shoes were daintily embroidered, though 
not so pretty as some I have seen the Empress 
Dowager wear. Some of her shoes are decorated 
with beautiful pearls and others are covered with 
precious stones. 

" The Empress Dowager," continued the 
Princess, " is very vain of her small feet ; though," 
she continued, as she put her own foot out, en- 
cased in the daintiest little embroidered slipper of 
light-blue satin, " it is not so small as my own." 

It seemed very human to hear this delicate lit- 
tle Princess make a remark of this kind. Of 
course, both she and the Empress Dowager have 
natural feet. 




THE EMPRESS DOWAGER 



The Chinese Ladies — Their Ills 275 

It was late in the afternoon, some months after 
my visit to the Princess, that a very different call 
came for my services. 

The boy came in and told me that a man 
wanted me to go to see his wife, who lived in the 
southern city outside the Ha-ta gate. It has al- 
ways been my custom never to refuse any one 
whether they be rich or poor, and so I told him 
to call a cart. 

It was in midwinter and a bitter cold night, 
the room was without fire and yet there was a 
child of three or four toddling about upon the 
kang or brick bed whose only garment was a 
long coat. 

" You should put a pair of trousers on that 
child," I said, " or it will catch cold and I will 
soon have to come again." 

" Yes," they said, " we will put trousers on it." 

" You had better do it at once," I insisted. 

" Yes," they continued, " we will see that it is 
dressed." 

After attending to the woman, and again 
urging them to dress the child, I wrapped my 
warm cloak around me and started home, though 
I could not forget the child. 

" It is a cold night," I said to the driver as we 
started on our way. 

" Yes," he answered, " there will be some un- 
comfortable people in the city to-night." 

" In that house we just left," I continued, for I 



276 Court Life in China 

could not banish the child from my thoughts, 
" there was a little child playing on the bed with- 
out a shred of trousers on." 

" Quite right," said he ; " they pawned the 
trousers of that child to get money to pay me for 
taking you to see the sick woman." 

" To pay you ! " said I, with indignation, and 
yet with admiration for the character of the peo- 
ple for whom I was giving my services — " to pay 
you ! Then drive right back and give them their 
money and tell them to go and redeem those 
trousers and put them on the child ! " 

"The city gate will be closed before we can 
reach it if I return," said he, " and we will not be 
able to get in to-night." 

" No matter about that," I insisted, " go back 
and give them the money." 

He turned around with many mutterings, lashed 
up his mule at the top of his speed, gave them the 
money, and then started on a gallop for the city 
gate. It was a rough ride in that springless cart 
over the rutty roads. But my house seemed 
warmer that night and my bed seemed softer 
after I had paid the carter myself. 

Among my friends and patients none are more 
interesting than the Misses Hsu. They are very 
intelligent, and after I had become well acquainted 
with them I said to them one day : 

" How is it that you have done such wide read- 
ing ? " 



The Chinese Ladies — Their Ills 277 

"You know, of course," they said, "that our 
father is a chuang yuan." 

I asked them the meaning of a chuang yuan. 
Then I learned that under the Chinese system a 
great many students enter the examinations, and 
those who secure their degree are called hsiu 
tsai ; a year or two later these are examined 
again, and those who pass are given the degree 
of chu jen ; once more these latter are examined 
and the successful candidates are called chin shih, 
and are then ready for official position. They 
continue to study, however, and are allowed to 
go into the palace, where they are examined in 
the presence of the Emperor, and those who pass 
are called han lin, or forest of pencils. Once in 
three years these han lins are examined and one 
is allowed to obtain a degree — he is a chuang 
yuan. 

Out of four hundred million people but one is 
allowed this degree once in three years. 

" Your father must be a very great scholar," I 
remarked. 

"He has always been a diligent student," they 
answered, modestly. 

"What is his given name?" I inquired, one 
day. 

" If you will give me a pencil I will write it for 
you ; we never speak the given name of our 
father in China," said the eldest, and she wrote it 
down. 



278 Court Life in China 

" How many sisters are there in your family — 
eight, are there not ? " 

" Yes. You know, of course, that number five 
was engaged when a child of six to the son of Li 
Hung-chang." 

" No, I was not aware of the fact ; and were they 
married? " 

" No, they were never married. The young 
man died before they were old enough to wed. 
When word of his death was brought to her, child 
that she was, she went to our mother and told 
her she must never engage her to any one else, 
as she meant to live and die the widow of this 
boy." 

"And did she go to Li Hung-chang'shome?" 

" No, the old Viceroy wanted to take her to his 
home, build a suite of rooms for her, and treat her 
as his daughter-in-law, but our parents objected 
because she was so young. The Viceroy loved 
her very much, and his eyes often filled with tears 
as he spoke of her and the son who had passed 
away. When the Viceroy died she wanted to go 
and kotow at his funeral, and all his family ex- 
cept the eldest son were anxious to have her do 
so, and thus be recognized as one of the family. 
But this son objected, and though Lady Li 
knocked her head on the coffin until it bled he 
would not yield, lest she might want her portion." 

" And what has become of your sister ? How 
is it that I have never seen her ? " 



The Chinese Ladies — Their Ills 279 

" She withdrew to a small court, where she has 
lived with none but her women servants, not even 
seeing our father or brothers, and not allowing a 
male servant to go near her. And she will not 
permit the word Li to be spoken in her presence." 

"And what does she do?" I asked. "How 
does she employ herself?" 

" Studying, reading, painting, and embroidery. 
When young Li refused to allow her to attend 
his father's funeral her sense of self-respect was 
outraged and she cut off her hair and threatened 
to commit suicide. She often fasts for a week, 
and has tried on several occasions to take her 
own life." 

I asked them if they did not fear that she 
might succeed finally in this attempt to kill her- 
self. 

" Yes, we have constant apprehensions. But 
then, what if she did ? It would only emphasize 
her virtue." 

It was some months after the young ladies told 
me what I have just related that they called, for 
they had taken up the study of English and I 
had agreed to help them a bit. 

" How is your sister? " I inquired, for the sad 
fate of this young girl weighed like a burden on 
my heart. 

" She fasted more than usual during the early 
summer, but she bathed daily and changed her 
clothes, dressing herself in her most beautiful gar- 



280 Court Life in China 

ments. She had not been sleeping well for some 
time, and one day she ordered her women to leave 
her and not return until they were called. They 
remained away until a married sister and a sister- 
in-law — a niece of Li Hung-chang — called and 
wanted to see her. We went to her room but 
found it locked. We knocked but received no 
answer. We finally punched a hole through the 
paper window and saw her sitting on her brick 
bed, her head bolstered up with cushions and her 
eyes closed. We supposed she was sleeping, 
but on forcing open the door we found that she 
had gone to join her boy husband, though her 
colour and appearance was that of a living per- 
son." 

" And are you sure she had not swooned?" 

" She remained in this condition for twenty-two 
hours without pulse or heart beat, and so we put 
her in her casket." 

I could not but feel sad that I had not been in 
the city, and had had an opportunity to help 
them to ascertain whether her life had really 
gone out. But the girls seemed proud of the 
distinction of having had a sister of such con- 
summate virtue. Numerous embroidered scrolls 
and laudatory inscriptions were sent her from 
friends of the Li family as well as of their own, 
and it is expected that the throne will order a 
memorial arch erected to her memory. 

On another occasion I was requested to go to 



The Chinese Ladies — Their Ills 281 

the palace of one of the princes. The fourth 
Princess, a beautiful little child of five, was ill 
with diphtheria, and the first greeting of the 
mother as I went in was that she " was homesick 
to see me." The child had been ill for several 
days before they sent for me, and I told them at 
once that the case was dangerous. I wanted to 
do all I could for them and at the same time pro- 
tect my own children from the danger of infec- 
tion. After the first treatment with antitoxin she 
seemed to rally, her throat cleared up, but I soon 
found that the poison had pervaded her entire 
system, and so I stayed with her day and night. 

I found that the child had contracted the dis- 
ease from another about her own age, who was 
both her playmate and her slave. It is the cus- 
tom among the wealthy to purchase for each 
daughter a companion who plays with her as a 
child, becomes a companion in youth and her 
maid when she marries. These slaves are usu- 
ally treated well, and when this one became ill 
the members of the family visited her often, ta- 
king her such dainties as might tempt her appe- 
tite. As a result I had to administer antitoxin 
to eight of the younger members of the house- 
hold, so careless had they been about the spread 
of this disease ; indeed I have found that the iso- 
lation of patients suffering from contagious dis- 
eases is wholly unknown in China. 

One of the most attractive of all my Chinese 



282 Court Life in China 

lady friends and patients is the niece of the great 
Viceroy, Li Hung-chang, the daughter of his 
brother, Li Han-chang, who is himself a viceroy. 
I have been her physician for eighteen years or 
more and hence have become intimately ac- 
quainted with her. She has visited me very 
often in my home and, of all the women I have 
ever known, of any race or people, I have never 
met one whom I thought more cultured or re- 
fined than she. This may seem a strange state- 
ment, but^ the quiet dignity that she manifested 
on all occasions and her charming manners are 
not often met with. I have never felt on enter- 
ing a drawing-room such an atmosphere of re- 
finement as seemed to surround her. 

That the Chinese take very kindly to foreign 
medicine there is no doubt, though it is some- 
times amusing how they go back to their own 
native methods. 

One day my husband brought home a physio- 
logical chart about the size of an ordinary man. 
It was covered with black spots and I asked him 
the reason for them. 

" That is what I asked the dealer from whom I 
bought it," he replied, " and he told me that those 
spots indicate where the needle can be inserted 
in treatment by acupuncture without killing the 
patient." 

When a Chinese is ill the doctor generally con- 
cludes that the only way to cure him is to stick a 



The Chinese Ladies— Their Ills 283 

long needle into him and let out the pain or set 
up counter irritation. If the patient dies it is 
evident he stuck the needle into the wrong spot. 
And this chart has been made up from millions 
of experiments during the past two or three thou- 
sand years from patients who have died or re- 
covered. 

This was practically illustrated by a woman 
who was brought to the hospital. Having had 
pain in the knee she sent for a Chinese physician 
who concluded that the only method of relieving 
her was by acupuncture. He therefore inserted 
a needle which unfortunately pierced the synovial 
sac causing inflammation which finally resulted in 
complete destruction of the joint. Such cases 
are not infrequent both among adults and chil- 
dren in all grades of society, due to this method 
of treatment. 

One day I was called to see a lady who was in 
immediate need of surgical treatment. She had 
three sons who were in high official positions in 
the palace, and if their mother died they would 
have to withdraw from official life and go into 
mourning for three years. When men are thus 
compelled to resign the new incumbent is not in- 
clined to restore the office when the period of 
mourning is over. They were therefore doubly 
anxious to have their mother recover. They had 
tried all kinds of Chinese physicians and finally 
sent for me. 



284 Court Life in China 

I explained the nature of the operation neces- 
sary, and gave them every reason to hope for a 
speedy recovery, while without surgical treat- 
ment she must surely die. They consented and 
the operation was successful. She recovered 
rapidly for a few days until I regarded her as 
practically out of danger. But one day when I 
called I found her bathed in perspiration, shaking 
with fear, weeping and depressed. Her wound 
was in an excellent condition and I could find no 
reason for her despondency. I cheered her up, 
laughed and talked with her, gave her such ar- 
ticles of diet as she craved, and left her happy. 
The next day I again found her in the same nerv- 
ous condition. 

"Something is wrong with your mother of 
which you have not told me," I said to her son. 

" Before we sent for you," he said, " we had 
called a spirit doctor, who went into a sort of 
trance, claimed to have descended into the spirit 
world where he saw them making a coffin which 
he said my mother would occupy before the fif- 
teenth of the month. It is because that time is 
approaching that she is filled with fear." 

I talked with the lady, showed her how her 
wound was healing, encouraged her to rest easy 
until the fifteenth, when I would spend the day 
with her, after which she immediately began 
gaining strength and soon recovered. 

At another time I was called to see the wife of 



The Chinese Ladies — Their Ills 285 

the president of the Board of Punishments. I 
found an operation necessary. The next day I 
found the patient delirious with a fever, and 
asked the husband if my directions had been fol- 
lowed. 

" I assure you they have," he answered. "But 
the cause of the fever is this : Last evening while 
the servants were taking their meal she was left 
alone for a short time. While they were absent, 
her sister who lived on this street, a short dis- 
tance from here, committed suicide. When the 
servant discovered it she ran directly to my wife's 
room, and told her of the tragedy. My wife be- 
gan to tremble, had a severe chill, and soon be- 
came delirious. I suspect that her sister's spirit 
accompanied the servant and entered my wife." 

In spite of this explanation I cleaned and 
dressed the wound and left her more comfortable. 
The next morning she was somewhat better, 
without fever and in her right mind. 

" What kind of a night did she have ? " I asked 
her husband. 

" Oh, very good," he answered. " I managed 
to get the spirit out of her." 

" How did you do it ? " I inquired. 

" Soon after you left yesterday, I dressed my- 
self in my official garments, came into my wife's 
apartments, and asked the spirit if it would not 
like to go with me to the yamen, adding that we 
would have some interesting cases to settle. I 



286 Court Life in China 

felt a strange sensation come over me and I 
knew the spirit had entered me. I got into my 
cart, drove down to the home of my sister-in-law, 
went in where the corpse lay, and told the spirit 
that it would be a disgrace to have a woman at 
the Board of Punishments. ' This is your place,' 
I said, in an angry voice ; ' get out of me and 
stay where you belong.' I felt the spirit leaving 
me, my fingers became stiff and I felt faint. I 
had only been at the Board a short time when 
they sent a servant to tell me that my wife was 
quiet and sleeping. When I returned in the 
evening the fever was gone and she was 
rational." 



XVIII 

The Funeral Ceremonies of a Dowager 
Princess 



There are five degrees of mourning, as follows : — For 
parents, grandparents and great-grandparents ; for brothers 
and sisters ; for uncles and aunts ; and for distant relatives. 
In the first sackcloth without hem or border ; in the second 
with hem or border ; in the third, fourth and fifth, pieces 
of sackcloth on parts of the dress. When sackcloth is 
worn, after the third interval of seven days is over the 
mourners can cast it off, and wear plain colours, such as 
white, gray, black and blue. For a parent the period is 
nominally three years, but really twenty-seven months, 
during all which time no silk can be worn ; during this 
time officials have to resign their appointments, and retire 
from public life. 

— Dyer Ball in " Things Chinese." 



XVIII 

THE FUNERAL CEREMONIES OF A DOWAGER 
PRINCESS 1 

ONE day I received a large sheet of white 
paper on which was written in Chinese 
characters the announcement of the 
death of the Dowager Princess Su, and inviting 
me to the " third-day exercises." The real mean- 
ing of this " chieh san" I did not comprehend, 
but I knew that those who were invited sent 
presents of cakes or fruit, or baskets of paper 
flowers, incense, gold and silver ingots made of 
paper, or rolls of paper silk, all of which were in- 
tended for the use of the spirit of the departed. 
The paper presents were all burned on the even- 
ing of the third day, while the spirit feasted upon 
the flavour of the fruit and cakes. 

As I did not feel that it was appropriate for me 
to send these things, I had a beautiful wreath of 
white chrysanthemum flowers made, and sent 
that instead. While I appreciated the invitation, 
I thought it was probably given only as a matter 
of form, and that I was not expected to attend 
the exercises, and so I sent my "Chinese maid 
with the wreath, saying that as I did not under- 
stand their customs I would not go. 

Taken from Mrs. Headland's note-book. 
289 



290 Court Life in China 

It was not long until the maid returned saying 
that they were anxious to have me come, that 
under no circumstances must I refuse, as they 
wished me to see their funeral ceremonies. The 
Princess sent her cart for me, and according to 
the Chinese custom, I took my maid seated upon 
the front, and set out for Prince Su's palace. As 
we neared our destination we passed numerous 
carts and chairs of princes who had been at the 
palace to pay their respects. The street leading 
off the great thoroughfare was filled with carts, 
chairs, servants and outriders, but the utmost 
order prevailed. There were scores of soldiers 
and special police, the latter dressed in long gar- 
ments of gray with a short jacket of white on the 
breast of which was his number in black. These 
gray and white uniforms were mourning colours, 
and were given by the Prince. 

As we entered the gate we saw white-robed 
servants everywhere, each with a sober face and 
a dignified bearing, waiting to be of use. My 
name was announced and two servants stepped 
out from the crowd, clothed from head to feet in 
white sackcloth, one presenting his arm to help 
me through the court, as though I were a bound- 
footed woman, and the other led the way. We 
were taken by a roundabout path, through nu- 
merous courts and passages, the front being re- 
served for the male guests, and were finally ush- 
ered into a room filled with white-robed women 



Funeral Ceremonies 291 

servants, who with one accord bent their knee in 
a low courtesy. 

We were there met by the first and third Prin- 
cesses, daughters of the Dowager who had just 
passed away. They were dressed in white, their 
hair being put up in the Manchu fashion. In- 
stead of the jewels and bright flowers, however, 
it was crossed and recrossed with bands of white 
folded sackcloth. As these two ladies were mar- 
ried daughters, and had left this home, their sack- 
cloth was not so coarse as that of the daughters- 
in-law and granddaughters who dwelt in the 
palace. It was they who received the guests 
and conducted them into the room where the 
mourners were kneeling. 

As the white door screen was raised I saw two 
rows of white-robed figures kneeling on the floor, 
and as I entered they all bent forward and touched 
their head to the ground, giving forth as they did 
it a low, wailing chant. 

Not knowing their customs I went up and 
stooped over, speaking first to the Princess and 
then to the ladies as best I could. I afterwards 
watched the other lady visitors and saw that 
they put their right hand up near their head as 
our soldiers salute, and courtesied to the Princess, 
her daughter-in-law and her eldest daughter. 
They then went over to a little table on which 
was a silver sacrificial set, consisting of a wine 
tankard, a great bowl, and a number of tiny cups 



292 Court Life in China 

holding but two tablespoonfuls. They took the 
cup in its little saucer, and, facing the beautiful 
canopied catafalque where the Dowager Princess 
was lying in state, they raised the cup as high as 
their head three times, emptying and refilling it 
each time. The mourners prostrated themselves 
and gave forth a mournful wail each time the cup 
was poured, after which the visitor arose and 
came over to where we were, and the ceremony 
was over. 

The third daughter of the late Dowager seemed 
to regard me as her special friend and guest, and 
insisted on my coming over to a white curtain 
that separated us from the view of the gentlemen, 
and from there I watched the proceedings of 
princes and officials who went through a similar 
ceremony. There was this difference with them, 
however, as they entered through the great 
canopied court, they were conducted by white- 
robed servants directly to the altar, and there 
kneeling, they made their obeisance to the spirit 
of the departed, after which they went into the 
room where the Prince and the other male de- 
scendants of the dead Dowager were kneeling and 
prostrating themselves. 

There was a heavy yellow curtain over the door 
that led into the sacrificial hall, and when the 
servants from without announced a visitor, this 
curtain was drawn aside, and as the guest and a 
flood of light entered, the mourners began their 



Funeral Ceremonies 293 

wailing which they continued until he had de- 
parted. These visitors remained but a moment, 
while the ladies who were there were all near 
relatives, and were dressed either entirely or 
partially in sackcloth. 

The room in which these ladies knelt was 
draped in white. The cushions were all covered 
with white, and all porcelain and other decora- 
tions had been removed. The floor was covered 
with a heavy rope matting, on which the ladies 
knelt — all except the Princess, for whom was 
prepared a small dark blue felt cushion. The 
Princess knelt at the northwest corner of the 
room, directly in front of the curtain which 
separated them from the sacrificial hall. Several 
of the very near male relatives entered and gave 
the low Manchu courtesy to the Princess, the 
son's wife, and the eldest daughter, though none 
of the other kneeling ladies were recognized. 
They left immediately without, so far as I noticed, 
raising their eyes. 

The Prince, his sons and the other mourners in 
the men's room were clothed in white fur, and the 
servants too, who stood in the sacrificial hall, and 
at intervals along the way towards the hall, wore 
white fur coats instead of sackcloth. 

To the left of the Princess there knelt in suc- 
cession all the secondary wives of Prince Su, and if 
I mistake not there were five of these concubines. 
Behind the Princess knelt her son's wife — the 



294 Court Life in China 

future Princess Su, and on her left, the daughters 
and granddaughters of the Prince knelt in succes- 
sion. The Princess and secondary princesses 
had bands of sackcloth wound around their 
heads, though their hair hung down their backs 
in two long braids, and as I had never seen these 
princesses except when clothed in beautifully em- 
broidered satin garments, with hair put up in 
elaborate coiffures, decked with jewels and 
flowers, and faces painted and powdered in the 
proper Manchu fashion, it was not easy to rec- 
ognize them in these white-robed, yellow-faced 
women, with hair hanging down their backs. 

The grandson's wife and granddaughters, on 
the other hand, had their hair combed, but the 
long hairpin was of silver instead of jade or 
gold, and instead of being decorated with jewels 
and flowers, and a red cord, it was crossed and 
recrossed with bands of folded sackcloth an inch 
and a half in width. It was neat and very effect- 
ive — the black hair and white cloth making a 
pretty contrast to the Western eye, though it 
would probably not be so considered by the 
Chinese. 

After I had watched them for a few moments I 
said to the princess who accompanied me : 

" I must not intrude upon your time longer ; 
you have been very kind to allow me to witness 
all these interesting customs." 

" Oh, but you must not go now," she insisted ; 



Funeral Ceremonies 295 

"you must remain and see the arrival of the 
priests, and the burning of the paper houses, 
goods, chattels, and images on the great street. 
I want you to understand all our customs, and 
this is the greatest and most interesting day of 
the funeral ceremonies." 

I urged that I ought not to intrude myself 
upon them at this time. 

" No, no," she said, " you must not say that. 
It is not intrusion ; you must stay and dine with 
us this evening." 

When I still insisted upon going she said that 
if I went they would feel that I did not care for 
them, and she was so persistent that I consented 
to remain if the maid might be sent home to the 
children, which they at once arranged for. 

In the interval between the arrival of male 
guests, the ladies took me out into a large 
canopied court to see the decorations, and into 
the sacrificial hall. These ceremonies were all 
conducted in the house and court which the 
Dowager Princess had occupied, and where I had 
often gone to see her when she wanted to thank 
me for some medical attention I had given her 
children or grandchildren. 

As we passed through the great gate, I 
noticed that the court was covered with a mat 
pavilion making a room about one hundred and 
fifty feet square, lighted by great squares of glass 
near the top, and decorated with banners of 



296 Court Life in China 

rich brocade silks or satins, of sober colours, 
blue, gray or white, on which were texts extolling 
the virtues of the late Dowager or her family. 
These were the gifts of friends, who had been 
coming and would continue to come for days if 
not weeks. 

At the north end as one came in at the gate 
was a gallery running the whole length of the 
northern court, fitted up with special hangings 
which separated it into different compartments. 
Many elegant banners and decorations gave it a 
striking effect. This was the place where the 
priests, who had not yet arrived, were to say 
their prayers day and night until the funeral 
ceremonies were over. 

Directly in front of the catafalque, in the gallery, 
there was a table on which I afterwards saw the 
priests place a silver vessel which the head priest 
carried, and the others regarded with much 
solemnity. 

From the gateway leading into the sacrificial 
hall the floor of the court had been raised even 
with the door of the house and the gate, a height 
of about five feet, and forty feet wide, and was 
covered with the same kind of rope matting that 
was on the floors. On the canopied verandas 
there were stacks of cakes, incense, fruit and 
money. These were the most novel sights I 
have ever seen in China. They were ten or 
twelve feet high. They were a very pretty sight, 



Funeral Ceremonies 297 

and it required some scrutiny to discover that 
they were made of cakes and fruit. How they 
were -able to build them thus, tier upon tier, and 
prevent their falling when they were touched is 
beyond my comprehension. What magic there 
is in it I do not know. 

As one entered the door of the sacrificial hall, 
towering above everything else, was the great 
catafalque, draped in cloth of gold, and in front 
of it were stacks of these sacrificial cakes. Near 
them there was a table on which there were great 
white, square candles, five inches or more in 
diameter, the four sides of which were stamped 
with figures of fairies and immortals. On this 
table there were also various savoury dishes, to- 
gether with cakes and fruit, prepared to feed the 
spirit of the dead. In front of this table again 
there was another about a foot high on which 
were placed the sacrificial wine vessels, and be- 
fore which the guests knelt. As we entered I 
saw the gentlemen kneeling to the left, while the 
ladies, separated from them by white curtains, 
were kneeling to the right. 

After we had seen the various customs without, 
I was taken into the dining-room, where I sat 
down with the young Princess and her two 
aunts, daughters of the Dowager. They were 
very kind and polite, and did all in their power 
to make me feel at home. We were attended by 
white-robed eunuchs, who knelt when they spoke 



298 Court Life in China 

to the Princess. There was such a lot of 
them. 

" How many servants do you use ordinarily?" 
I asked the eldest daughter. 

" About four hundred," she replied. 

I thought of the task of robing four hundred 
servants in new white sackcloth, and attending 
to all the other things that I had seen, in the 
forty-eight hours since the death of the Dowager 
Princess. Even the bread, instead of being 
dotted with red as it is ordinarily, was dotted 
with black ! 

As we were finishing our supper we heard the 
horns of the priests and went to see them arrive. 
Prince Su, and the other male members of the 
family, went out to the door to receive them, but 
we remained within. They first went to the 
gallery, then the head priest came down into the 
sacrificial hall and made nine prostrations before 
the catafalque, without, however, pouring or of- 
fering wine. After each third prostration he 
stood up and raised his clasped hands to a level 
with his eyes. They then began their weird 
music, standing on the two sides of the raised 
platform between the gate and the house, thus 
allowing a passageway between them for the 
guests. 

The Princess told me that they were about to 
form a procession to go to the great street. I 
therefore took my leave in order that I might 



Funeral Ceremonies 299 

precede them and see the procession arrive, and 
witness the burning of the presents for the spirit. 

When I arrived on the great street I there be- 
held a paper cart and horses which were intended 
to transport the spirit to the eastern heaven. 
There was a sedan chair for her use after her ar- 
rival, numerous servants, money, silk, and a 
beautiful, big house for her to dwell in, all made 
of paper. I had not long to wait for the proces- 
sion, which was headed by the priests playing 
mournful, wailing music on large and small 
horns and drums. The priests were followed by 
the mourners and their friends. When they ar- 
rived at the place of the burning, the mourners 
prostrated themselves upon white cushions be- 
fore the paper furnishings amid the shrieks of the 
instruments, the wailing of the hired mourners, 
and the petitions of the priests for the spirits to 
assist the departed on her way. 

While this was going on, fire was applied to 
various parts of the paper pile, and in a moment 
a great flame sprang up into the air — a flame 
that could be seen from miles around, and in less 
time than it takes to tell it the whole was a heap 
of glowing ashes, the mourners had departed, 
and the little street children were stirring it up 
with long sticks. 

The first three days after death, the spirit is 
supposed to visit the different temples, going, as 
it were, from official court to official court receiv- 



300 Court Life in China 

ing judgment, and cards of merit or demerit to 
take with it, for the deeds done in the body. On 
the third day it returns to say farewell to the 
home, and then leaves for its long journey, and 
all this paper furniture is sent on ahead. 

They continue forty-nine days of prayers by 
the priests, alternating three days by the Bud- 
dhists, three by the Lamas, and three by the 
Taoists, after which the Buddhists take their 
turn again. Everything else remains much as I 
have described it. The family, servants, every- 
body in mourning, and all business put aside to 
make way for this ceremony of mourning, mourn- 
ing, mourning, when they ought to be rejoicing, 
for the poor old Princess had been a paralytic for 
years and was far better out of her misery. 

The Princess frequently sent her cart for me 
during these days. Once when I was going 
through the court where there were vast quanti- 
ties of things to be burned for the spirit, all made 
of paper, I noticed some that were so natural 
that I was unable to distinguish between them 
and the real things. Especially was this true of 
the furniture and flowers like that which had been 
in her apartments. There were great ebony 
chairs with fantastically marked marble seats, 
cabinets, and all the furniture necessary for her 
use. Among these things I noticed on the table 
a pack of cards and a set of dice, of which she 
had been very fond, and a chair like the one in 






Funeral Ceremonies 301 

which the eunuchs had carried the crippled old 
Princess about the court, and I said to the young 
Princess who accompanied me : 

" You do not think your grandmother will re- 
quire these things in the spirit world, do you ? " 

" Perhaps not," she replied, " but she enjoyed 
her cards and dice, and the chair was such a 
necessity, that, whether she needs them or not, it 
is a comfort to us to get and send her everything 
she liked while she lived, and it helps us bear our 
sorrows." 



XIX 

Chinese Princes and Officials 



In any estimate of the forces which lead and control 
public opinion in China, everywhere from the knot of 
peasants in the hamlet to the highest officers of state and 
the Emperor himself, the literati, or educated class, must 
be given a prominent position. They form an immense 
body, increased each year by the government examina- 
tions. They are at the head of the social order. Every 
civil officer in the empire must be chosen from their num- 
ber. They constitute the basis of an elaborate system of 
civil service, well equipped with checks and balances 
which, if corrected and brought into touch with modern 
life and thought, would easily command the admiration of 
the world. 
— Chester Holcomb in " The Real Chinese Question" 



XIX 

CHINESE PRINCES AND OFFICIALS 

ONE day while the head eunuch from the 
palace of one of the leading princes in 
Peking - was sitting in my study he said : 

" It is drawing near to the New Year. Do you 
celebrate the New Year in your honourable coun- 
try ? " 

" Yes," I replied, " though not quite the same 
as you do here." 

" Do you fire off crackers? " 

" Yes, in the matter of firecrackers, we celebrate 
very much the same as you do." 

" And do you settle up all your debts as we do 
here?" 

" I am afraid we do not. That is not a part of 
our New Year celebration." 

" Our Prince is going to take on two more 
concubines this New Year," he volunteered. 

" Ah, indeed, I thought he had three concu- 
bines already." 

" So he does, but he is entitled to five." 

" I should think it would make trouble in a 
family for one man to have so many women," I 
ventured. 

He waved his hand in that peculiar way the 
3°5 



306 Court Life in China 

Chinese have of saying, don't mention it, as he 
answered : 

" That is a difficult matter to discuss. Natu- 
rally if this woman sees the Prince talking to that 
one, this one is going to eat vinegar," which 
gives us a glimpse of some of the domestic diffi- 
culties in Chinese high life. However it is a fact 
worth remembering that the Manchu prince does 
not receive his full stipend from the government 
until he has five concubines, each of whom is the 
mother of a son. 

The leading princes of the new regime are 
Ching, Su, and Pu-lun. Prince Ching has been 
the leader of the Manchus ever since the down- 
fall of Prince Kung. He has held almost every 
office it was in the power of the Empress Dow- 
ager to give, " though disliked by the Emperor." 
He was made president of the Tsung-li Yamen 
in 1884, and from that time until the present has 
never been degraded, or in any way lost the im- 
perial favour. He is small in stature, has none of 
the elements of the great man that characterized 
Li Hung-chang and Chang Chih-tung, or Prince 
Kung, but he has always been characterized by 
that diplomacy which has kept him one of the 
most useful officials in close connection with the 
Empress Dowager. It is to his credit moreover 
that the legations were preserved from the Box- 
ers in the siege of 1900. 

Prince Su is the only one of the eight heredi- 



Chinese Princes and Officials 307 

tary princes who holds any office that brings 
him into intimate contact with the foreigners. 
During the Boxer siege he gave his palace 
for the use of the native Christians, and at the 
close was made collector of the customs duties 
(octoroi) at the city gates. Never had there 
been any one in charge of this post who turned 
in as large proportion of the total collections 
as he. This excited the jealousy of the other 
officials, and they said to each other : "If Prince 
Su is allowed to hold this position for any 
length of time there will never be anything in it 
for any one else." They therefore sought for a 
ground of accusation, and they found it, in the 
eyes of the conservatives, in the fact that he rode 
in a foreign carriage, built himself a house after 
the foreign style of architecture, furnished it with 
foreign furniture, employed an Englishman to 
teach his boys, and as we have seen opened a 
school for the women and girls of his family. 
He therefore lost his position, but it is to the 
credit of Prince Chun, the new Regent, and his 
progressive policy, that Prince Su has been made 
chief of the naval department, of which Prince 
Ching is only an adviser. 

The most important person among either 
princes or officials that has been connected with 
the new regime is Yuan Shih-kai. He was born 
in the province of Honan, that province south of 
the Yellow River which is almost annually 



308 Court Life in China 

flooded by that great muddy stream which is 
called " China's Sorrow." As a boy he was a 
diligent student of the Chinese classics and of 
such foreign books as had been translated into 
the Chinese language, but he has never studied 
a foreign tongue nor visited a foreign country. 
Here then rests the first element of his greatness 
— that without any knowledge of foreign lan- 
guage, foreign law, foreign literature, science of 
government, or the history of progress and of 
civilization, he has occupied the highest and most 
responsible positions in the gift of the empire, 
has steered the ship of state on a straight course 
between the shoals of conservatism on the one 
hand and radical reform on the other until he 
has brought her near to the harbour of a safe 
progressive policy. 

He has always been what the Chinese call the 
tu-ti or pupil of Li Hung-chang, and it may be 
that it was from him he learned his statecraft. 
Certain it is that he always basked in the fa- 
vour of the great Viceroy, and it may be that he 
had more or less influence with him in his earlier 
appointments, for he rose rapidly and in spite of 
all other officials. 

On his return from Korea he was made a 
judge. He was then put in charge of the army 
of the metropolitan province, and with the as- 
sistance of German officers he succeeded in 
drilling 12,500 troops after the European fashion. 



Chinese Princes and Officials 309 

It was about this time that the Emperor con- 
ceived the plan of instituting and carrying out 
one of the most stupendous reforms that has 
ever been undertaken in human government — 
that of transforming four thousand years of con- 
servatism of four hundred millions of people in 
the short space of a few months. 

Given : A people who cannot make a nail, to 
build a railroad. 

Given : A people who dare not plow a deep 
furrow for fear of disturbing the spirits of the 
place, to open gold, silver, iron and coal mines. 

Given : A people who in 4,000 years did not 
have the genius to develop a decent high school, 
to open a university in the capital of every 
province. 

These are three of the score or more of equally 
difficult problems that the Emperor undertook to 
solve in twice as many days. In order to the 
solution of these problems there was organized 
in Peking a Reform Party of hot-headed, radical 
young scholars not one of whom has ever turned 
out to be a statesman. They were brilliant young 
men, many of them, but they so lost their heads 
in their enthusiasm for reform that they forgot 
that their government was in the hands of the 
same old conservative leaders under whom it 
had been for forty centuries. 

They introduced into the palace as the private 
adviser of the Emperor, Kang Yu-wei, as we 



31 o Court Life in China 

have already shown, to whom was thus offered 
one of the greatest opportunities that was ever 
given to a human being — that of being the leader 
in this great reform. He was hailed as a young 
Confucius, but his popularity was short-lived, for 
he so lacked all statesmanship as to allow the 
young Emperor to issue twenty-seven edicts, dis- 
posing of twenty-seven difficult problems such as 
I have given above in about twice that many 
days, and it is this hot-headed and unstatesman- 
like young " Confucius " who now calls Yuan 
Shih-kai an opportunist and a traitor because he 
did not enter into the following plot. 

After the Emperor had dismissed two conserv- 
ative vice-presidents of a Board, two governors 
of provinces, and a half dozen other useless con- 
servative leaders, they plotted to overthrow him 
by appealing to the ambition of the Empress 
Dowager and induce her to dethrone him and 
again assume the reins of government. They 
argued that " he was her adopted son, it was she 
who had placed him on the throne, and she was 
therefore responsible for his mistakes." They 
complimented her on " the wisdom which she 
had manifested, and the statesmanship she had 
exhibited " during the thirty years and more of 
her regency. To all which she listened with a 
greedy ear, but still she made no move. 

During this time were the Emperor and his 
young "Confucius" idle? By no means. They 



Chinese Princes and Officials 311 

had hatched a counterplot, and had decided that 
what they could not do by moral suasion and 
statesmanship they would do by force, and so 
they sent an order to Yuan Shih-kai, who as we 
have said had drilled and was in charge of 12,500 
of the best troops in the empire, urging him to 
" hasten to the capital at once, place the Empress 
Dowager under guard in the Summer Palace so 
that she may not be allowed to interfere in the 
affairs of the government, and protect him in his 
reform measures." 

The Emperor knew that nothing could be 
done without the command of the army which 
was largely in the hands of a great conservative 
friend of the Empress Dowager (Jung Lu) the 
father-in-law of the present Regent. Yuan was 
in charge of an army corps of 12,500 troops, but 
for him to have taken them even at the command 
of the Emperor, without informing his superior 
officer, would have meant the loss of his head at 
once. The first thing then for him to do was to 
take this order to Jung Lu. Yuan was in favour 
of reform, though he may not have approved of 
the Emperor's methods. Jung Lu hastened to 
Prince Ching and they two sped to the Empress 
Dowager in the Summer Palace where they laid 
the whole matter before her. She hurried to 
Peking, boldly faced and denounced the Emperor, 
took from him his seal of state, and confined him 
a prisoner in the Winter Palace. Kang Yu-wei, 



312 Court Life in China 

the young " Confucius," fled, but the Empress 
Dowager seized his brother and five other patri- 
otic young reformers, and ordered them beheaded 
on the public execution grounds in Peking. 

Naturally the Empress Dowager approved of 
the " wise and statesmanlike methods " of Yuan 
in thus protecting instead of imprisoning her, 
and thus placing the reins of government once 
more in her hands, and she appointed him Junior 
Vice-President of the Board of Works, and when 
she was compelled to remove the Governor of 
Shantung who had organized the Boxer Society, 
she appointed Yuan Acting Governor in his stead. 
" Yuan," says Arthur H. Smith, was " a man of 
a wholly different stripe " from the one removed, 
and " if left to himself he would speedily have 
exterminated the whole Boxer brood, but being 
hampered by ' confidential instructions ' from the 
palace, he could do little but issue poetical proc- 
lamations, and revile his subordinates for failure 
to do their duty." 

When Yuan was made Governor of Shantung 
a number of the Boxer leaders called upon him 
expecting to find in him a sympathizer worthy of 
his predecessor. They told him of their great 
powers and possibilities, and of how they were 
proof against the spears, swords and bullets of 
their enemies. Yuan listened to them with pa- 
tience and interest, and invited them to dine with 
him and other official friends in the near future. 



Chinese Princes and Officials 313 

During the dinner the Governor directed the 
conversation towards the Boxer leaders and their 
prowess, and led them once more to relate to 
all his friends their powers of resistance. He fed 
them well, and after the dinner was over he sug- 
gested that they give an exhibition of their 
wonderful powers to the friends whom he had in- 
vited. This they could not well refuse to do after 
the braggadocio way in which they had talked, 
and so the Governor lined them up, called forth a 
number of his best marksmen, and proceeded 
with the exhibition, and it is unnecessary to add 
that if the Empress Dowager had invited Yuan 
to the meeting with the princes when they dis- 
cussed the advisability of joining the Boxers on 
account of a belief in their supernatural powers, 
she might have been spared the humiliation of 
1900. 

We shall soon see that Yuan cared no more 
for the " confidential instructions " of the Empress 
Dowager, when his statesmanship was involved, 
than for the orders of the Emperor. His business 
was to govern and protect the people of his 
province, and thanks to his wise statesmanship 
and strong character " there was not only no 
foreigner killed during the troubled season of 
anxiety and flight " of 1900, and " comparatively 
little of the suffering elsewhere so common." 

And now we come to another plot which in- 
dicates the character of Yuan and two other 



314 Court Life in China 

great viceroys, Chang Chih-tung, now Grand 
Secretary, and Liu Kun-yi, Viceroy of the Yang- 
tse-kiang provinces. It is a well-known fact 
that during the Boxer rebellion the Empress 
Dowager was so influenced by the promises of 
the Boxers to drive out all the foreigners that she 
sent out some very unwise edicts that they should 
be massacred in the provinces. Yuan and his 
two confreres secretly stipulated that if the 
foreign men of war would keep away from the 
ports of their provinces they would maintain 
peace and protect the foreigners no matter what 
orders came from the throne. So that when 
these confidential instructions came from the 
palace to massacre the foreigners, in order to 
gain time they pretended to believe that no such 
orders could have come from the throne. They 
must be forgeries of the Boxers. They therefore 
refused to believe them until they had sent their 
own special messenger all the way to Peking to 
get the edict from the hands of Her Majesty and 
bring it to them in their provinces. This mes- 
senger was also secretly instructed to find out 
what the contents of the edict were, and if it was 
contrary to the desires of the Governor, he was 
to dilly-dally on the way home until the Boxer 
trouble was ended or until the foreigners had all 
been removed from the territory. And it was 
such conduct as this on the part of three Chinese 
and one Manchu viceroys that saved China from 



Chinese Princes and Officials 315 

being divided up among the Powers in 1900, a 
fact which the Empress Dowager was not slow 
to understand and reward. 

In 1900 Yuan was made Governor of the 
Shantung province, and the court was compelled 
to flee to Hsian. It was while the court was thus 
in hiding that an incident occurred which in- 
dicates the fertility of the Empress Dowager and 
the elasticity of all Chinese social customs. 
Governor Yuan's mother died. In a case of this 
kind customs dictate, and the rules of filial affec- 
tion demand, that a man shall resign all his offi- 
cial positions and go into mourning for a period 
of three years. Yuan therefore sent his resigna- 
tion to the Empress Dowager, while " weeping 
tears of blood." 

The country was of course in desperate straits 
and could ill afford to lose, for three years, for a 
mere sentiment, the services of one of her great- 
est and most powerful statesmen. However 
much he may have regretted to give up such a 
brilliant career which was just well begun, Yuan 
no doubt expected to do so. What was his sur- 
prise therefore to receive from Her Majesty a 
message of condolence in which she praised his 
mother in the highest terms for having given the 
world such a brilliant and able son. Under 
the circumstances, however, it would be impossible 
to accept his resignation as his services to the 
country just at this juncture were indispensable. 



316 Court Life in China 

She would, however, appoint a substitute to go 
into mourning for him, and this with the knowl- 
edge that she had borne a son whose services were 
so necessary to the safety of the government and 
the country, would be a sufficient comfort to the 
spirit of his departed mother, and Yuan was 
forced to continue in his official position as 
Governor of the province without the intermis- 
sion of a single day of mourning. Such is the 
elasticity and adaptability of the unchanging 
laws and customs of the Oriental when in the 
hands of a master — or a mistress — like Her 
Majesty the Empress Dowager. 

One can imagine that in proportion as the Em- 
press Dowager was pleased with the statesman- 
ship manifested by Yuan Shih-kai in uninten- 
tionally reseating her upon the throne, in a like 
proportion the Emperor would be dissatisfied 
with it as being the cause of his dethronement 
This was not, however, against Yuan alone but 
against the father-in-law of the present Regent 
and even Prince Ching as well. During the 
whole ten years, from 1898 until his death, while 
he was a prisoner " his heart boiled with wrath " 
against those who had been the cause of his 
downfall. 

It was not until the Boxer troubles of 1900 
were over, and Yuan, by the masterly way in 
which he had disregarded the imperial edicts, 
had protected and preserved the lives of all the 



Chinese Princes and Officials 317 

foreigners in his province, keeping peace the 
while, that honours began to be heaped upon 
him. And this not without reason as we shall 
proceed to show. 

In 1901 he was made Governor- General of the 
metropolitan province, and Junior Guardian of 
the Heir Apparent. In 1902 he was decorated 
with the Yellow Jacket, placed in charge of the 
affairs of the Northern Railway, and consulting 
minister to counsel the government. Wherever 
he was he gave as much attention to the city- 
government as to that of the province or the na- 
tion, and in spite of his having no foreign educa- 
tion himself, he began building up a system of 
public schools in his province like which there is 
nothing else in the whole of China. Let us re- 
member also that during all this time there was 
suspended over his head, from the palace, a 
sword of Damocles which was liable to fall at 
any time. But we will explain that further on as 
it is the last act of the drama. 

When Yuan went to Tientsin as Viceroy of the 
metropolitan province he found there Dr. C. D. 
Tenny, the president of the Tientsin University 
which had been begun by Li Hung-chang some 
ten or a dozen years before. It had a good course 
of study and was turning out a large number of 
young graduates for whom there ought to be a 
better future than that of interpreters in the va- 
rious business houses of that and other cities. He 



318 Court Life in China 

therefore called Dr. Tenny to him and inquired 
particularly about the system of public school edu- 
cation throughout the United States. 

" What is to prevent our putting into operation 
such a system throughout this province? " asked 
the Viceroy. 

" Nothing," answered Dr. Tenny, " except to be 
willing to submit to the conditions." 

"And what are those conditions?" asked His 
Excellency. 

" They are that you open schools in every im- 
portant town, place in them well-educated, com- 
petent teachers, whom you are willing to pay a 
salary equal to what they may reasonably expect 
to get if they enter business." 

" May I ask if you would be willing to under- 
take the development of such a system?" he 
asked further. 

" On one condition," answered Dr. Tenny. 

"And what is that?" 

" That you allow me to open a school wherever 
I think there should be one, call my teachers 
from whatsoever source I please to call them, pay 
them whatever salary I think they deserve, send- 
ing all the bills to Your Excellency, and you pay 
them without question." 

The Viceroy had known Dr. Tenny for years, 
had always had the most implicit confidence both 
in his ability and his honesty, and so, lightening 
up his duties in the Tientsin and Paotingfu Uni- 



Chinese Princes and Officials 319 

versities, he commissioned him to establish what 
may be termed the first public school system of 
education on modern lines in the whole empire. 
This one act, if he had done no other, was reason 
enough for a wise regent to have continued him 
in office even though he " had rheumatism of the 
leg." But it may be that there are extenuating 
circumstances in this act of the Regent as we 
shall point out later. 

There is one phase of the Boxer uprising that 
I have never yet seen properly represented in 
any book or magazine. We all know how the 
ministers of the various European governments 
with their wives and children, the customs of- 
ficials, missionaries, business men, and tourists 
who happened to be in Peking at the time, with 
all the Chinese Christians, were confined in the 
British legation and Prince Su's palace. We 
know how they barricaded their defense. We 
know how they were fired upon day and night 
for six weeks by the Boxer leaders and the army 
of the conservatives under the leadership of their 
general, Tung Fu-hsiang. But the thing which 
we do not know, or at least which has not been 
adequately told, is the most interesting secret 
plot of the liberal progressives, under the leader- 
ship of " Prince Ching and others," to thwart the 
Empress Dowager and the Boxer leaders, the 
conservatives and their army, and protect the 
most noted company of prisoners that have ever 



320 Court Life in China 

been confined in a legation quarter. The plot 
was this : 

When Prince Ching and his progressive as- 
sociates in Peking discovered that they could not 
vote down the Boxer princes, they dared not 
openly oppose them, but they secretly decided 
that the representatives of the Powers must not 
be massacred else the doom of China was sealed. 
When they discovered that Yuan Shih-kai 
and the other great viceroys had decided by 
stratagem to foil the Boxers even though 
they must set all the imperial edicts at naught, 
they decided, for the sake of the protection of 
the legations and the preservation of the empire, 
that they would do the same. They secretly 
sent supplies of food to the besieged, which the 
latter feared to use lest they be poisoned. But 
more than that they kept their own armies in 
Peking as a guard and as a final resort in case 
there was danger of the legation being over- 
come, and as a matter of fact there were regular 
pitched battles between the troops of Prince 
Ching and his associates and those of the Boxer 
leader, Tung Fu-hsiang. Had the Boxers finally 
succeeded, Yuan Shih-kai and Prince Ching and 
their associates would have lost their heads, but 
as the Boxers failed it was they who went to 
their graves by the short process of the execu- 
tioner's knife. 

So Yuan was between two fires. He had dis- 



Chinese Princes and Officials 321 

obeyed the commands of the Emperor in not 
coming to Peking and had therefore incurred his 
displeasure and caused his downfall. He had 
disobeyed the Empress Dowager in not putting 
to death the foreigners in his province, and if 
the Boxers were successful he would surely lose 
his head on that account. The Boxers, however, 
were not successful and as his disobedience had 
helped to save the empire, Yuan, so long as the 
Dowager remained in power, was safe. 

But a day of reckoning must inevitably come. 
The Empress Dowager was an old woman, the 
Emperor was a young man. In all human 
probabilities she would be the first to die, while 
his only hope was in her outliving the Emperor, 
who had sworn vengeance on all those who had 
been instrumental in his imprisonment. 

I have a friend in Peking who is also a friend 
of one of the greatest Chinese officials. This 
official has gone into the palace daily for a 
dozen years past and knows every plot and 
counterplot that has been hatched in that nest of 
seclusion during all that time, though he has 
been implicated in none of them. He has held 
the highest positions in the gift of the empire 
without ever once having been degraded. One 
day when he was in the palace the Emperor un- 
burdened his heart to him, thinking that what 
he said would never reach the ears of his 
enemies. 



322 Court Life in China 

" You have no idea," said the Emperor, 
" what I suffer here." 

" Indeed ? " was the only reply of the official. 

" Yes," continued the Emperor, " I am not al- 
lowed to speak to any one from outside. I am 
without power, without companions, and even 
the eunuchs act as though they are under no 
obligations to respect me. The position of the 
lowest servant in the palace is more desirable 
than mine." Then lowering his voice he con- 
tinued, " But there is a day of reckoning to 
come. The Empress Dowager cannot live for- 
ever, and if ever I get my throne again I will 
see to it that those who put me here will suffer 
as I have done." 

It is not unlikely that this conversation of the 
Emperor reached the ears of Yuan Shih-kai. 
Walls have ears in China. Everything has ears, 
and every part of nature has a tongue. If so, 
here was the occasion for the last plot in the 
drama of the Emperor's life, and next to the last 
in the official life of Yuan Shih-kai. 

The problem is to so manipulate the laws of 
nature as to prevent the Emperor outliving the 
Empress Dowager, and not allow the world to 
know that you have been trifling with occult 
forces. He must die a natural death, a death 
which is above suspicion. He must not die one 
day after the Empress Dowager as that would 
create talk. And he ought to die some time be- 



Chinese Princes and Officials 323 

fore her. The death fuse is one which often 
burns very much longer than we expect — 
was it not one of the English kings who said " I 
fear I am a very long time a-dying, gentlemen " 
— and sometimes it burns out sooner than is in- 
tended. There were two imperial death fuses 
burning at the same time in that Forbidden City 
of Peking. The Empress Dowager had " had a 
stroke." Hers was undoubtedly nature's own 
work. But the enemies of Yuan Shih-kai tell us 
that the Emperor had " had a Chinese doctor," 
to whom the great Viceroy paid $33,000 for his 
services. We are told that the Empress Dowager 
in reality died first and then the Emperor, though 
the Emperor's death was first announced, and the 
next day that of the Dowager. 

What then are we to infer? That the Em- 
peror was poisoned ? Let it be so. That is 
what the Japanese believed at the time. But 
who did it ? Most assuredly no one man. One 
might have employed a Chinese physician for 
him, but the last man whose physician the Em- 
peror would have accepted would have been 
Yuan Shih-kai's. Had you or I been ill would 
we have allowed the man who was the cause of 
our fall to select our physician ? But granted 
that Yuan Shih-kai did employ his physician, 
and that his death was the result of slow poison- 
ing, could Yuan Shih-kai have so manipulated 
Prince Ching, the Regent (who is the late Em- 



324 Court Life in China 

peror's brother), the ladies of the court, and 
all those thousands of eunuchs, to remain silent 
as to the death of the Empress Dowager until he 
had completed the slow process on His Majesty? 
No ! If the Emperor was poisoned — and the 
world believes he was — there are a number of 
others whose skirts are as badly stained as those 
of the great Viceroy, or long ere this his body 
would have been sent home a headless corpse 
instead of with " rheumatism of the leg." 

What then is the explanation ? It may be this, 
that the court, and the officials as a whole, felt 
that the Emperor was an unsafe person to resume 
the throne, and that it were better that one man 
should perish than that the whole regime should 
be upset. They even refused to allow a foreign 
physician to go in to see him, saying that of his 
own free will he had turned again to the Chinese, 
all of which indicates that it was not the plot of 
any one man. 

Why then should Yuan Shih-kai have been 
made the scapegoat of the court and the of- 
ficials, and branded as a murderer in the face of 
the whole world ? That may be another plot. 
The radical reformers, followers of Kang Yu-wei, 
have been making such a hubbub about the 
matter ever since the death of the Emperor and 
the Empress Dowager that somebody had to be 
punished. They said that Yuan had been a 
traitor to the cause of reform, that he had not 



Chinese Princes and Officials 325 

only betrayed his sovereign in 1898, but that now 
he had encompassed his death. 

Now to satisfy these enemies, the Prince 
Regent may have decided that the best thing to 
do was to dismiss Yuan for a time. I think 
that the trivial excuse he gives for doing so 
favours my theory — with " rheumatism of the 
leg," to which is added, " Thus our clemency 
is manifest " — a sentence which may be severe or 
may mean nothing, and when the storm has blown 
over and the sky is clear again, Yuan may be 
once more brought to the front as Li Hung- 
chang and others have been in the past. 
Which is a consummation, I think, devoutly to be 
wished. 



XX 

Peking- — The City of the Court 



The position of Peking at the present time is one of pe- 
culiar interest, for all the different forces that are now at 
work to make or mar China issue from, or converge to- 
wards, the capital. There, on the dragon throne, be- 
side, or rather above, the powerless and unhappy Emperor, 
the father of his people and their god, sits the astute and 
ever-watchful lady whose word is law to Emperor, minister 
and clown alike. There dwell the heads of the govern- 
ment boards, the leaders of the Manchu aristocracy, and 
the great political parties, the drafters of new constitutions 
and imperial decrees, and the keen-witted diplomatists 
who know so well how to play against European antag- 
onists the great game of international chess. 

— R. F. Johnston in " From Peking to Mande/ay." 



XX 

PEKING— THE CITY OF THE COURT 

IN the place where Peking now stands there 
has been a city for three thousand years. 
Five centuries before Christ it was the 
capital of a small state, but was destroyed three 
centuries later by the builder of the great wall. 
It was soon rebuilt, however, and has continued 
from that time until the present, with varied 
fortunes, as the capital of a state, the chief city of 
a department, or the dwelling-place of the court. 
It is the greatest and best preserved walled 
city in the empire, if not in the world. The 
Tartar City is sixteen miles in circumference, sur- 
rounded by a wall sixty feet thick at the bottom, 
fifty feet thick at the top and forty feet high, with 
six feet of balustrade on the outside, beautifully 
crenelated and loopholed, and in a good state 
of preservation. The streets are sixty feet wide, — 
or even more in places, — well macadamized, and 
lit with electric light. The chief mode of con- 
veyance is the 'ricksha, though carriages may 
be hired by the week, day or hour at various 
livery stables in proximity to the hotels, which, 
by the way, furnish as good accommodation to 
their guests as the hotels of other Oriental cities. 

3 2 9 



330 Court Life in China 

In the centre of the Tartar City is the Imperial 
City, eight miles in circumference, encircled by a 
wall six feet thick and fifteen feet high, pierced 
by four gates at the points of the compass ; and 
in the centre of this again is the Forbidden City, 
occupying less than half a square mile, the home 
of the court. 

Fairs are held, at various temples, fourteen 
days of every month, distributed in such a way 
as to bring them almost on alternate days, while 
at certain times there are two fairs on the same 
day. It is a mistake to suppose that the Chinese 
women in the capital are very much secluded. 
They may be seen on the streets at almost any 
time, while the temple courts and adjacent 
streets, on fair days, are crowded with women 
and girls, dressed in the most gorgeous colours, 
their hair decorated with all kinds of artificial 
flowers, followed by little boys and girls as gaily 
dressed as themselves. Here they find all kinds 
of toys, curios, and articles of general use, from 
a top to a broom, from bits of jade or other pre- 
cious stones, to a snuff bottle hollowed out of a 
solid quartz crystal, or a market basket or a 
dust-pan made of reeds. 

Peking being the city of the court, and the 
headquarters of many of the greatest officials, is 
the receptacle of the finest products of the oldest 
and greatest non-Christian people the world has 
ever known. China easily leads the world in 




< 

< 
u 

< 

o 

W 
pq 

H 
W 

P4 

'-H 

2 

H 

< 



Peking — The City of the Court 331 

the making of porcelain, the best of which has 
always gone to Peking for use in the palace, and 
so we can find here the best products of every 
reign from the time of Kang Hsi, as well as those 
of the former dynasties, to that of Kuang Hsu and 
the Empress Dowager. The same is true of her 
brass and bronze incense-burners and images, 
her wood and ivory carvings, her beautiful em- 
broideries, her magnificent tapestries, and her 
paintings by old masters of six or eight hundred 
years ago. Here we can find the finest Oriental 
rugs, in a good state of preservation, with the 
" tone " that only age can give, made long be- 
fore the time of Washington. 

There is no better market for fine bits of em- 
broidery, mandarin coats, and all the better 
products of needle, silk and floss, of which the 
Chinese have been masters for centuries, than the 
city of the court. The population consists largely 
of great officials and their families, whose cast- 
off clothing, toned down by the use of years, 
often without a blemish or a spot, finds its way 
into the hands of dealers. The finest furs, — seal, 
otter, squirrel, sable and ermine, — are brought 
from Siberia, Manchuria and elsewhere, for the 
officials and the court, and can be secured for 
less than half what they would cost in America. 
Pearls, of which the Chinese ladies and the court 
are more fond than of diamonds, may be found 
in abundance in all the bazars, which are many, 



332 Court Life in China 

and judging from the way they are purchased 
by tourists, are both cheaper and better than 
elsewhere. 

The Chinese have little appreciation of dia- 
monds as jewelry. On one occasion there was 
offered to me a beautiful ring containing a large 
sapphire encircled by twenty diamonds. When I 
offered the dealer less than he asked for it, he 
said : " No, rather than sell it for that price, I 
will tear it apart, and sell the diamonds sepa- 
rately for drill-points to the tinkers who mend 
dishes. I can make more from it in that 
way, only I dislike to spoil the ring." The 
Empress Dowager during her late years, and 
many of the ladies and gentlemen of the more 
progressive type, affected, whether genuinely or 
not, an appreciation of the diamond as a piece 
of jewelry, especially in the form of rings, 
though coloured stones, polished, but not cut, 
have always been more popular with the Chinese. 
The turquoise, the emerald, the sapphire, the ruby 
and the other precious stones with colour have, 
therefore, always graced the tables of the bazars 
in the capital, while the diamond until very re- 
cently was relegated to the point of the tinker's 
drill. 

There is another method of bringing bits of 
their ancient handiwork to the capital which 
most of those living in Peking, even, know noth- 
ing about. A company, whose headquarters is 



Peking — The City of the Court 333 

at an inn, called the Hsing Lung Tien, sends 
agents all over the empire, to purchase and 
bring to them everything in the nature of a curio, 
whether porcelain, painting, embroidery, pottery 
or even an ancient tile or inkstone, which they 
then, at public auction, sell to the dealers. The 
sale is at noon each day. The first time I visited 
it was with a friend from Iowa who was anxious 
to get some unique bits of porcelain. The auc- 
tioneer does not " cry " the wares. Neither 
buyer nor seller says a word. Nobody knows 
what anybody else has offered. The goods are 
passed out of a closed room from a high window 
where the crowd can see them, and then each 
one wanting them tries to be first in securing the 
hand of the auctioneer, which is ensconced in 
his long sleeve, where, by squeezing his fingers, 
they tell him how much they will give for the 
particular piece. It is the only real case of 
"talking in the sleeve" I have ever seen, and 
each piece is sold to the first person offering a 
fair profit on the money invested, though he 
might get much more by allowing them to bid 
against each other. 

Among the attractive sights in Peking, none 
are quite so interesting as the places where His 
Majesty worships, and of these the most beauti- 
ful in architecture, the grandest in conception, 
and the one laid out on the most magnificent 
scale, is the Temple of Heaven. 



334 Court Life in China 

Think of six hundred and forty acres of valuable 
city property being set aside for the grounds of 
a single temple, as compared with the way our 
own great churches are crowded into small city 
lots of scarcely as many square feet, and over- 
shadowed by great business blocks costing a 
hundred times as much, and we can get some 
conception of the magnificence of the scale on 
which this temple is laid out. A large part of 
the grounds is covered with cedars, many of 
which are not less than five hundred years old, 
while other parts are used to pasture a flock of 
black cattle from which they select the sacrifice 
for a burnt offering. The grounds are not well 
kept like those of our own parks and churches, 
but the original conception of a temple on such a 
large scale is worthy of a great people. 

The worship at this temple is the most impor- 
tant of all the religious observances of the em- 
pire, and constitutes a most interesting remnant 
of the ancient monotheistic cultus which pre- 
vailed in China before the rationalism of Confu- 
cius and the polytheistic superstition of Buddhism 
predominated among the people. While the 
ceremonies of the sacrifices are very complicated, 
they are kept with the strictest severity. The 
chief of these is at the winter solstice. On De- 
cember 2 1 st the Emperor goes in a sedan chair, 
covered with yellow silk, and carried by thirty- 
two men, preceded by a band of musicians, and 



Peking — The City of the Court 335 

followed by an immense retinue of princes and 
officials on horseback. He first goes to the tab- 
let-chapel, where he offers incense to Shang Ti, 
the God above, and to his ancestors, with three 
kneelings and nine prostrations. Then going to 
the great altar he inspects the offerings, after 
which he repairs to the Palace of Abstinence, 
where he spends the night in fasting and prayer. 
The next morning at 5 : 45 A. M. he dons his sac- 
rificial robes, proceeds to the open altar, where 
he kneels and burns incense, offers a prayer to 
Shang Ti, and incense to his ancestors whose 
shrines and tablets are arranged on the northeast 
and northwest portions of the altar. 

There are two altars in the temple, a quarter 
of a mile apart, the covered and the open altar, 
and this latter is one of the grandest religious 
conceptions of the human mind. It is a triple 
circular marble terrace, 210 feet wide at the base, 
150 feet in the middle, and ninety feet at the top, 
ascended at the points of the compass by three 
flights of nine steps each. A circular stone is in 
the centre of the top, around which are nine 
stones in the first circle, eighteen in the second, 
twenty -seven in the third, etc., and eighty-one in 
the ninth, or last circle. The Emperor kneels on 
the circular stone, surrounded by the circles of 
stones, then by the circles of the terraces, and fi- 
nally by the horizon, and thus seems to himself 
and his retinue to be in the centre of the universe, 



336 Court Life in China 

his only walls being the skies, and his only cov- 
ering, the shining dome. 

There are no images of any kind connected 
with the temple or the worship, the only offerings 
being a bullock, the various productions of the 
soil, and a cylindrical piece of jade about a foot 
long, formerly used as a symbol of sovereignty. 
Twelve bundles of cloth are offered to Heaven, 
and only one to each of the emperors, and to the 
sun and moon. The bullocks must be two years 
old, the best of their kind, without blemish, and 
while they were formerly killed by the Emperor 
they are now slaughtered by an official appointed 
for that purpose. 

The covered altar is, I think, the most beauti- 
ful piece of architecture in China. It is smaller 
than the one already described but has erected 
upon it a lofty, circular triple-roofed temple 
ninety-nine feet in height, roofed with blue tiles, 
the eaves painted in brilliant colours and pro- 
tected from the birds by a wire netting. In the 
centre, immediately in front of the altar, is a cir- 
cular stone, as in the open altar. The ceiling is 
covered with gilded dragons in high relief, and 
the whole is supported by immense pillars. It 
was this building that was struck by lightning in 
1890, but it was restored during the ten years 
that followed. Being made the camp of the 
British during the occupation of 1900, it received 
some small injuries from curio seekers, but none 



Peking — The City of the Court 337 

of any consequence. The Sikh soldiers who died 
during this period were cremated in the furnace 
connected with the open altar. 

The Chinese have been an agricultural people 
for thirty centuries or more, and this character- 
istic is embodied in the Temple of Agriculture, 
which occupies a park of not less than three hun- 
dred and twenty acres of city property opposite 
the Temple of Heaven. It has four great altars, 
with their adjacent halls, to the spirits of Heaven, 
Earth, the Year, and the Ancestral Husbandman, 
Shen Nung, to whom the temple is dedicated. 
It was used as the camp of the American soldiers 
in 1900, and was well cared for. At one time 
some of the soldiers upset one of the urns, and 
when it was reported to the officer in command, 
the whole company was called out and the urn 
properly replaced, after which the men were lec- 
tured on the matter of injuring any property be- 
longing to the temple. 

There are several large plots of ground in this 
enclosure, one of which the Emperor ploughs, 
while another is marked " City Magistrate," an- 
other " Prefect," and on these bits of land the 
" five kinds of grain " are sown. One cannot 
view these imperial temples without being im- 
pressed with the potential greatness of a people 
who do things on such a magnificent scale. But 
one, at the same time, also feels that these 
temples, and the great Oriental religions which 



338 Court Life in China 

inspire and support them have failed in a meas- 
ure to accomplish their design, which ought to 
be to educate and develop the people. This 
they can hardly be said to have done, especially 
if we consider their condition in their lack of 
all phases of scientific development, for as the 
sciences stand to-day they are all the product of 
the Christian peoples. 

There are three other imperial temples on the 
same large scale as those just described. The 
Temple of the Sun east of the city, that of the 
Moon on the west, and that of the Earth on the 
north, though it must be confessed that the 
worship at these has been allowed to lapse. In 
the Tartar City there are two others, the 
Lama Temple and the Confucian Temple, in 
the former of which there is a statue of Buddha 
seventy-five feet high, and from thirteen to fifteen 
hundred priests who worship daily at his shrine. 
This statue is made of stucco, over a framework, 
and not of wood as some have told us, and as 
the guide will assure us at the present day. One 
can ascend to a level with its head by several 
flights of stairs, where a lamp is lit when the 
Emperor visits the temple. In the east wing of 
this same building is a prayer-wheel, which 
reaches up through several successive stories, 
and is kept in motion while the Emperor is 
present. 

In the east side buildings there are a few in- 



Peking — The City of the Court 339 

teresting, though in some cases very disgusting 
idols, such for instance as those illustrating the 
creation, but over these draperies have been 
thrown during recent years, which make them a 
trifle more respectable. 

The temple is very imposing. At the entrance 
there are two large arches covered with yellow 
tiles, from which a broad paved court leads to 
the front gate, on the two sides of which are the 
residences of the Lamas or Mongol priests. At 
the hour of prayer, which is about nine o'clock, 
they may be seen going in crowds, clothed in 
yellow robes, to the various halls of worship 
where they chant their prayers. 

Very different from this is the Confucian 
Temple only a quarter of a mile away. Here 
we find neither priest nor idol — nothing but a 
small board tablet to " Confucius, the teacher of 
ten thousand ages " with those of his most faith- 
ful and worthy disciples. In the court on each 
side are rows of buildings — that on the east con- 
taining the tablets of seventy-eight virtuous men ; 
that on the west the tablets of fifty-four learned 
men ; eighty-six of these were pupils of the Sage, 
while the remainder were men who accepted his 
teachings. No Taoists, however learned ; no 
Buddhists, however pure ; no original thinkers, 
however great may have been their following, 
are allowed a place here. It is a Temple of 
Fame for Confucianists alone. 



34-0 Court Life in China 

I have been in this temple when a whole bul- 
lock, the skin and entrails having been removed, 
was kneeling upon a table facing the tablet of 
the Sage, while sheep and pigs were similarly- 
arranged facing the tablets of his disciples. 

For twenty-four centuries China has had 
Taoism preached within her dominions ; for 
twenty-three centuries she has worshipped at 
the shrine of Confucius ; for eighteen centuries 
she has had Buddhism, and for twelve centuries 
Mohammedanism : and during all this time if we 
believe the statements of her own people, she has 
slept. Does it not therefore seem significant, 
that less than a century after the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ had been preached to her people, and the 
Bible circulated freely throughout her dominions, 
she opened her court to the world, began to build 
railroads, open mines, erect educational institu- 
tions, adopt the telegraph and the telephone, and 
step into line with the industrial methods of the 
most progressive nations of the Western world ? 



XXI 



The Death of Kuang Hsii and the 
Empress Dowager 



Who knows whether the Dowager Empress will ever re- 
pose in the magnificent tomb she has built for herself at 
such a cost, or whether a new dynasty may not rifle its 
riches to embellish its own ? Tze-Hsi is growing old ! 
According to nature's immutable law her faculties must 
soon fail her ; her iron will must bend and her far-seeing 
eye grow dim, and after her who will resist the tide of 
foreign aggression and stem the torrent of inward revolt ? 
— Lady Susan Townley in " My Chinese Note Book" 



XXI 

THE DEATH OF KUANG HSU AND THE 
EMPRESS DOWAGER 

DURING mid-November of 1908 the For- 
bidden City of Peking was a blind stage 
before which an expectant world sat as 
an audience. It had not long to wait, for on the 
fifteenth and sixteenth it learned that Kuang Hsu 
and the Empress Dowager, less than twenty-four 
hours apart, had taken " the fairy ride and as- 
cended upon the dragon to be guests on high." 
The world looked on in awe. It expected a dem- 
onstration if not a revolution but nothing of the 
kind happened. But on the other hand one of 
the most difficult diplomatic problems of her 
history was solved in a quiet and peaceable, if 
not a statesmanlike way, by the aged Dowager 
and her officials, and China once more had upon 
her throne an emperor, though only a child, about 
whose succession there was no question. And 
all this was done with less commotion than is 
caused by the election of a mayor in New York 
or Chicago, which may or may not be to the 
credit of an absolute monarchy over a republican 
form of government. 

343 



344 Court Life in China 

The world has speculated a good deal as to 
what happened in the Forbidden City of Peking 
during the early half of November. Will the 
curious world ever know? Whether it will or 
not remains for the future to determine. We 
have, however, the edicts issued to the foreign 
legations at Peking and with these at the present 
we must be content. From them we learn that 
it was the Empress Dowager and not Kuang 
Hsu who appointed Prince Chun as Regent, and 
that this appointment was made — or at least an- 
nounced — twenty-four hours before the death of 
the Emperor. 

On the thirteenth of November the foreign 
diplomatic representatives received the following 
edict from the great Dowager through the 
regular channel of the Foreign Office of which 
Prince Ching was the president : 

"It is the excellent will of Tze-hsi-kuan-yu- 
k'ang-i-chao-yu-chuang-ch'eng-shou-kung-ch'in- 
hsien-chung-hsi, the great Empress Dowager, 
that Tsai Feng, Prince of Chiin, be appointed 
Prince Regent {She Ckang-wang)" 

The above edict was soon followed by another 
which stated that " Pu I, the son of Tsai Feng, 
should be reared in the palace and taught in the 
imperial schoolroom," an indication that he was to 
be the next emperor, and that Tsai Feng and not 



The Death of Kuang Hsu 345 

Kuang Hsu was to occupy the throne, and all this 
by the " excellent will " of the Empress Dowager. 

On the morning of the fourteenth the following 
edict came from the Emperor himself : 

" From the beginning of August of last year, 
our health has been poor. We formerly ordered 
the Tartar generals, viceroys, and governors of 
every province to recommend physicians of 
ability. Thereupon the viceroys of Chihli, the 
Liang Kiang, Hu Kiang, Kiangsu and Chekiang 
recommended and sent forward Chen Ping-chun, 
Tsao Yuen-wang, Lu Yung-ping, Chow Ching- 
tao, Tu Chung-chun, Shih Huan, and Chang 
Pang-nien, who came to Peking and treated us. 
But their prescriptions have given no relief. Now 
the negative and positive elements (Yin- Yang) 
are both failing. There are ailments both exter- 
nal and internal, and the breath is stopped up, 
the stomach rebellious, the back and legs pain- 
ful, appetite failing. On moving, the breath 
fails and there is coughing and panting. Be- 
sides, we have chills and fever, cannot sleep, and 
experience a general failure of bodily strength 
which is hard to bear. 

" Our heart is very impatient and now the 
Tartar generals, viceroys, and governors of 
every province are ordered to select capable 
physicians, regardless of the official rank, and to 
send them quickly to Peking to await summons 
to give medical aid. If any can show beneficial 



346 Court Life in China 

results he will receive extraordinary rewards, and 
the Tartar generals, viceroys, and governors 
who recommend them will receive special grace. 
Let this be published." 

This was followed on the same day by the fol- 
lowing edict : 

" Inasmuch as the Emperor Tung Chih had 
no issue, on the fifth day of the twelfth moon of 
that reign (January 12, 1875) an edict was pro- 
mulgated to the effect that if the late Emperor 
Kuang Hsu should have a son, the said prince 
should carry on the succession as the heir of 
Tung Chih. But now the late Emperor has 
ascended upon the dragon to be a guest on 
high, leaving no son, and there is no course 
open but to appoint Pu I, the son of Tsai Feng, 
the Prince Regent, as the successor to Tung 
Chih and also as heir to the Emperor Kuang 
Hsu." 

The next day — the fifteenth — -another edict, 
purporting to come from little Pu I, but tran- 
scribed by Prince Ching, was sent out to the 
diplomatic body and to the world. It is as fol- 
lows : 

" I have the honour to inform Your Excellency 
that on the 21st day of the 10th moon [Nov. 14, 
1908] at the yn-ke~ [5 : 7 P. M.] the late Emperor 
ascended on the dragon to be a guest on high. 
We have received the command of Tze-hsi, etc., 
the Great Empress Dowager to enter on the sue- 




PRINCE CHUN WITH THE EMPEROR PU I 
ON HIS LEFT 



The Death of Kuang Hsu 347 

cession as Emperor. We lamented to Earth 
and Heaven. We stretched out our hands, 
wailing our insufficiency. Prostrate we reflect 
on how the late Emperor occupied the Imperial 
Throne for thirty-four years, reverently following 
the customs of his ancestors, receiving the 
gracious instruction of the Empress Dowager, 
exerting himself to the utmost, not failing one 
day to revere Heaven and observe the laws of 
his ancestors, devoting himself with diligence to 
the affairs of government and loving the people, 
appointing the virtuous to office, changing the 
laws of the land to make the country power- 
ful, considering new methods of government 
which arouse the admiration of both Chinese 
and foreigners. All who have blood and breath 
cannot but mourn and be moved to the extreme 
point. We weep tears of blood and beat upon 
our heart. How can we bear to express our 
feelings ! 

11 But we think upon our heavy responsibility 
and our weakness, and we must depend upon 
the great and small civil and military officials of 
Peking and the provinces to show public spirit 
and patriotism, and aid in the government. The 
viceroys and governors should harmonize the 
people and arrange carefully methods of govern- 
ment to comfort the spirit of the late Emperor in 
heaven. This is our earnest expectation." 

On the sixteenth day of November, three days 



348 Court Life in China 

after she had appointed the regent, and two days 
after she had appointed Pu I, the diplomatic rep- 
resentatives received the following from Prince 
Ching : 

" Your Excellency : 

" I have the honour to inform Your Excellency 
that we have reverently received the following 
testamentary statement of Her Imperial Majesty 
Tze-hsi, etc., the Great Empress Dowager : 

" ' Although of scanty merit, I received the 
command of His Majesty the Emperor Wen 
Tsung-hsien (the posthumous title of Hsien Feng) 
to occupy a throne prepared for me in the pal- 
ace. When the Emperor Mu Tsung I (Tung 
Chih) as a child succeeded to the throne, vio- 
lence and confusion prevailed. It was a critical 
period of suppression by force. " Long-hairs " 
(Tai-ping rebels) and the "twisted turbans" 
(Nien Fei) were in rebellion. The Moham- 
medans and the aborigines had commenced to 
make trouble. There were many disturbances 
along the seacoast. The people were destitute. 
Ulcers and sores met the eye on every side. 
Cooperating with the Empress Dowager Hsiao 
Chen-hsien, I supported and taught the Em- 
peror and toiled day and night. According to 
the instructions contained in the testamentary 
counsels of the Emperor Wen Tsung-hsien 
(Hsien Feng) I urged on the officials of Peking 
and the provinces and all the military com- 



The Death of Kuang Hsii 349 

manders, determining the policy to be followed, 
diligently searching the right way of governing, 
choosing the upright for official positions, res- 
cuing from calamity and pitying the people, and 
so obtained the protection of Heaven, gaining 
peace and tranquillity instead of distress and 
danger. Then the Emperor Mu Tsung I (Tung 
Chih) departed this life and the late Emperor 
succeeded to the throne. The times became 
still harder and the people in still greater straits, 
sorrow within and calamity without, confusion 
and noise ; I had no recourse but to give instruc- 
tion in government once more. 

" ' The year before last the preparatory meas- 
ures for the institution of constitutional govern- 
ment were published. This year the time limits 
for the measures preparatory to constitutional 
government have been promulgated. Attending 
to these myriad affairs the strength of my heart 
has been exhausted. Fortunately my constitu- 
tion was originally strong and up to the present 
I have stood the strain. Unexpectedly from the 
summer and autumn of this year I have been ill 
and have not been able to assist in the multi- 
tudinous affairs of government with tranquillity. 
Appetite and the power to sleep have gone. 
This has continued for a long time until my 
strength is exhausted and I have not dared to 
rest for even a day. On the 21st of this moon 
[November 14th] came the sorrow of the death 



350 Court Life in China 

of the late Emperor, and I was unable to control 
myself, so that my illness increased till I was un- 
able to rise from my bed. I look back upon our 
fifty years of sorrow and trouble. I have been 
continually in a state of high tension without a 
moment's respite. Now a reform in the method 
of government has been commenced and there 
begins to be a clue to follow. The Emperor now 
succeeding to the throne is in his infancy. All 
depends upon his instruction and guidance. 
The Prince Regent and all the officials of Peking 
and the provinces should exert themselves to 
strengthen the foundations of our empire. Let 
the Emperor now succeeding^ to the throne 
make his country's affairs of first importance and 
moderate his sorrow, diligently attending to his 
studies so that he may in future illustrate the in- 
struction which he has received. This is my 
devout hope. Let the mourning period be for 
twenty-seven days only. Let this be proclaimed 
to the empire that all may know.' " 

Still one more edict was necessary to complete 
this remarkable list, and this was sent to the 
legations on the 17th of November. It is as 
follows : 

" I have the honour to inform Your Excellency 
that on the 226. of the moon [November 15, 1908] 
I reverently received the following edict : 

" We received in our early childhood the love 
and care of Tze-hsi, etc., the Great Empress 



The Death of Kuang Hsu 351 

Dowager. Our gratitude is boundless. We 
have received the command to succeed to the 
throne and we fully expected that the gentle 
Empress Dowager would be vigorous and reach 
a hundred years so that we might be cherished 
and made glad and reverently receive her in- 
structions so that our government might be 
established and the state made firm. But her 
toil by day and night gradually weakened her. 
Medicine was constantly administered in the 
hope that she might recover. Contrary to our 
hopes, on the 21st day of the moon [November 
14th] at the wei-k!o [1:3 P. M.] she took the 
fairy ride and ascended to the far country. We 
cried out and mourned how frantically! We 
learn from her testamentary statement that the 
period of full mourning is to be limited to twenty- 
seven days. We certainly cannot be satisfied 
with this. Full mourning must be worn for one 
hundred days and half mourning for twenty- 
seven months, by which our grief may be partly 
expressed. The order to restrain grief so that 
the affairs of the empire may be of first im- 
portance we dare not disregard, as it is her 
parting command. We will strive to be temper- 
ate so as to comfort the spirit of the late Empress 
in Heaven." 

We call attention to the fact that according to 
the fourth of these edicts the death of the Emperor 
is put at from 5 to 7 P. M on the evening of the 



352 Court Life in China 

14th of November, while that of the Empress 
Dowager is from 1 to 3 P. M. of the same day at 
least two hours earlier, and that in her last edict 
she is made to speak of the death of Kuang Hsu. 
Whether these dates have become mixed in cross- 
ing to America we have not been able to ascer- 
tain, though we think it more than likely that her 
death occurred on November 15th instead of the 
14th. 



XXII 

The Court and the New Education 



Abolish the eight-legged essay. Let the new learning be 
the test of scholarship, but include the classics, history, 
geography and government of China in the examinations. 
The true essay will then come out. If so desired, the 
eight-legged essay can be studied at home; but why 
trouble the school with them, and at the same time waste 
time and strength that can be expended in something more 
profitable ? 

— Chang Chih-tung in " China's Only Hope." 



XXII 

THE COURT AND THE NEW EDUCATION 

THE changes in the attitude of the court 
towards a new educational system be- 
gan, as do many great undertakings, in 
a very simple way. We have already shown 
how the eunuchs secured all kinds of foreign 
mechanical toys to entertain the baby Emperor 
Kuang Hsu; how these were supplemented in 
his boyhood by ingenious clocks and watches ; 
how he became interested in the telegraph, the 
telephone, steam cars, steamboats, electric light 
and steam heat, and how he had them first 
brought into the palace and then established 
throughout the empire : and how he had the 
phonograph, graphophone, cinematograph, bicy- 
cle, and indeed all the useful and unique inven- 
tions of modern times brought in for his enter- 
tainment. 

He then began the study of English. When 
in 1894 a New Testament was sent to the Em- 
press Dowager on the occasion of her sixtieth 
birthday, he at once secured from the American 
Bible Society a copy of the complete Bible for 
himself. He began studying the Gospel of Luke. 

355 



35^ 



Court Life in China 



This gave him a taste for foreign literature and 
he sent his eunuchs to the various book deposi- 
tories and bought every book that had been trans- 
lated from the European languages into the 
Chinese. To these he bent all his energies and 
it soon became noised abroad that the Emperor 
was studying foreign books and was about to 
embrace the Christian faith. This continued 
from 1894 till 1898, during which time his ex- 
ample was followed by tens of thousands of 
young Chinese scholars throughout the empire, 
and Chang Chih-tung wrote his epoch-making 
book " China's Only Hope " which, being sent to 
the young Emperor, led him to enter upon a 
universal reform, the chief feature of which may 
be considered the adoption of a new educational 
system. 

But now let us notice the animus of Kuang 
Hsu. He has been praised without stint for his 
leaning towards foreign affairs, when in reality 
was it not simply an effort on the part of the 
young man to make China strong enough to re- 
sist the incursions of the European powers? 
Germany had taken Kiaochou, Russia had 
taken Port Arthur, Japan had taken Formosa, 
Great Britain had taken Weihaiwei, Fiance had 
taken Kuangchouwan, and even Italy was anx- 
ious to have a slice of his territory, while all the 
English papers in the port cities were talking of 
China being divided up amongst the Powers, 



The Court and the New Education 357 

and it was these things which led the Emperor 
to enter upon his work of reform. 

In the summer of 1898 therefore he sent out 
an edict to the effect that : " Our scholars are 
now without solid and practical education ; our 
artisans are without scientific instructors ; when 
compared with other countries we soon see how 
weak we are. Does any one think that our troops 
are as well drilled or as well led as those of the 
foreign armies ? or that ive can successfully stand 
against them ? Changes must be made to ac- 
cord with the necessities of the times. . . . 
Keeping in mind the morals of the sages and 
wise men, we must make them the basis on 
which to build newer and better structures. We 
must substitute modern arms and Western or- 
ganization for our old regime ; we must select 
our militaiy officers according to Western meth- 
ods of military education ; we must establish 
elementary and high schools, colleges and uni- 
versities, in accordance with those of foreign 
countries ; we must abolish the Wen-chang (liter- 
ary essay) and obtain a knowledge of ancient and 
modern world-history, a right conception of the 
present-day state of affairs, with special reference 
to the governments and institutions of the coun- 
tries of the five great continents ; and we must 
understand their arts and sciences." 

The effect of this edict was to cause hundreds 
of thousands of young aspirants for office to put 



358 Court Life in China 

aside the classics and unite in establishing reform 
clubs in many of the provincial capitals, open 
ports, and prefectural cities. Book depots were 
opened for the sale of the same kind of literature 
the Emperor had been studying, magazines and 
newspapers were issued and circulated in great 
numbers, lectures were delivered and libraries 
established, and students flocked to the mission 
schools ready to study anything the course con- 
tained, literary, scientific or religious. Christians 
and pastors were even invited into the palace by 
the eunuchs to dine with and instruct them. But 
the matter that gave the deepest concern to the 
boy in the palace was : "How can we so 
strengthen ourselves that we will be able to re- 
sist the White Peril from Europe ? " 

Among the important edicts issued in the es- 
tablishment of the new education was the one of 
June 11, 1898, in which he ordered that "a great 
central university be established at Peking," the 
funds for which were provided by the govern- 
ment. Among other things he said : " Let all 
take advantage of the opportunities for the new 
education thus open to them, so that in time 
we may have many who will be competent to 
help us in the stupendous task of putting our 
country on a level with the strongest of the West- 
ern Power s." It was not wisdom the young man 
was after for the sake of wisdom, but he wanted 
knowledge because knowledge was power, and 



The Court and the New Education 359 

at that time it was the particular kind of power 
that was necessary to save China from utter 
destruction. 

On the 26th of the same month he censured 
the princes and ministers who were lax in re- 
porting upon this edict, and ordered them to do 
so at once, and it was not long until a favourable 
report was given and, for the first time in the 
history of the empire, a great university was 
launched by the government, destined, may we 
not hope, to accomplish the end the ambitious 
boy Emperor had in view. 

Kuang Hsu was aware that a single institu- 
tion was not sufficient to accomplish that end. 
On July 10th therefore he ordered that " schools 
and colleges be established in all the provincial 
capitals, prefectoral, departmental and district 
cities, and allowed the viceroys and governors 
but two months to report upon the number of 
colleges and free schools within their provinces," 
saying that "all must be changed into practical 
schools for the teaching of Chinese literature, 
and Western learning and become feeders to the 
Peking Imperial University." He ordered fur- 
ther that all memorial and other temples that 
had been erected by the people but which were 
not recorded in the list of the Board of Rites or 
of Sacrificial Worship, were to be turned into 
schools and colleges for the propagation of 
Western learning, a thought which was quite in 



360 Court Life in China 

harmony with that advocated by Chang Chih- 
tung. The funds for carrying on this work, 
and the establishment of these schools, were to 
be provided for by the China Merchants' Steam- 
ship Company, the Telegraph Company and the 
Lottery at Canton. 

On August 4th he ordered that numerous pre- 
paratory schools be established in Peking as 
special feeders to the university ; and on the 
9th appointed Dr. W. A. P. Martin as Head of 
the Faculty and approved the site suggested for 
the university by Sun Chia-nai, the president. 
On the 1 6th he authorized the establishment of 
a Bureau for "translating into Chinese Western 
works on science, arts and literature, and text- 
books for use in schools and colleges " ; and on 
the 19th he abolished the " Palace examinations 
for Hanlins as useless, superficial and obsolete," 
thus severing the last cord that bound them to 
the old regime. 

What, now, was the Empress Dowager doing 
while Kuang Hsu was issuing all these reform 
edicts, which, we are told, were so contrary to 
all her reactionary principles ? Why did she not 
stretch forth her hand and prevent them ? She 
was spending the hot months at the Summer 
Palace, fifteen miles away, without offering either 
advice, objection or hindrance, and it was not 
until two delegations of officials and princes had 
appeared before her and plead with her to come 



The Court and the New Education 361 

and take control of affairs and thus save them 
from being ousted or beheaded, and herself from 
imprisonment, did she consent to come. By thus 
taking the throne she virtually placed herself in 
the hands of the conservative party, and all his 
reform measures, except that of the Peking Uni- 
versity and provincial schools, were, for the time, 
countermanded, and the Boxers were allowed to 
test their strength with the allied Powers. 

Passing over the two bad years of the Em- 
press Dowager, which we have treated in another 
chapter, we find her again, after the failure of the 
Boxer uprising, and the return of the court to 
Peking, reissuing the same style of edicts that 
had gone out from the pen of Kuang Hsu. On 
August 29, 1901, she ordered " the abolition of 
essays on the Chinese classics in examinations 
for literary degrees, and substituted therefor es- 
says and articles on some phase of modern af- 
fairs, Western laws or political economy. This 
same procedure is to be followed in examination 
of candidates for office." 

And now notice another phase of this same 
edict. "The old methods of gaining military 
degrees by trial of strength with stone weights, 
agility with the sword, or marksmanship with the 
bow on foot or on horseback, are of no use to 
men in the army, where strategy and military 
science are the sine qua non to office, and hence 
they should be done away with forever." It is, 



362 Court Life in China 

as it was with Kuang Hsu, the strengthening of 
the army she has in mind in her first efforts at 
reform, that she may be able to back up with 
war-ships and cannon, if necessary, her refusal 
to allow Italy or any other European power to 
filch, without reason or excuse, the territory of 
her ancestors. 

September 12, 1901, she issued another edict 
commanding that " all the colleges in the empire 
should be turned into schools of Western learn- 
ing ; each provincial capital should have a uni- 
versity like that in Peking, whilst all the schools 
in the prefectures and districts are to be schools 
or colleges of the second or third class," neither 
more nor less than a restatement of the edict of 
July 10, 1898, as issued by the deposed Emperor, 
except that she confined it to the schools without 
taking the temples. 

September 17, 1901, she ordered "the vice- 
roys and governors of other provinces to follow 
the example of Liu Kun-yi of Liang Kiang, Chang 
Chih-tung of Hukuang, and Kuei Chun (Manchu) 
of Szechuan, in sending young men of scholastic 
promise abroad to study any branch of Western 
science or art best suited to their tastes, that in 
time they may return to China and place the 
fruits of their knowledge at the service of the 
empire." Such were some of the edicts issued 
by the Emperor and the Empress Dowager in 
their efforts to launch this new system of education 





YANG SHIH-HSIANG 



YUAN SHIH-KAI 



The Court and the New Education 363 

which was to transform the old China into a strong 
and sturdy youth. What now were the results ? 

The Imperial College in Shansi was opened 
with 300 students all of whom had already 
taken the Chinese degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
It had both Chinese and foreign departments, 
and after the students had completed the first, 
they were allowed to pass on to the second, 
which had six foreign professors who held di- 
plomas from Western colleges or universities, 
and a staff of six translators of university text- 
books into Chinese, superintended by a foreigner. 
In 1901-2 ten provinces, under the wise leader- 
ship of the Empress Dowager, opened colleges 
for the support of which they raised not less than 
$400,000. 

The following are some of the questions given 
at the triennial examinations of these two years 
in six southern provinces : 

1. " As Chinese and Western laws differ, and 
Western people will not submit to Chinese pun- 
ishments, what ought to be done that China, 
like other nations, may be mistress in her own 
country ? " 

2. " What are the Western sources of eco- 
nomic prosperity, and as China is now so poor, 
what should she do ? " 

3. " According to international law has any 
one a right to interfere with the internal affairs 
of any foreign country ? " 



364 Court Life in China 

4. " State the advantages of constructing rail- 
ways in Shantung." 

5. " Of what importance is the study of 
chemistry to the agriculturist ? " 

While Yuan Shih-kai was Governor of Shan- 
tung he induced Dr. W. M. Hayes to resign the 
presidency of the Presbyterian College at Teng 
Choufu and accept the presidency of the new 
government college at Chinanfu the capital of 
the province. Dr. Hayes drew up a working 
plan of grammar and high schools for Shantung 
which were to be feeders to this provincial col- 
lege. This was approved by the Governor, and 
embodied in a memorial to the throne, copies of 
which the Empress Dowager sent to the govern- 
ors and viceroys of all the provinces declaring 
it to be a law, and ordering the " viceroys, gov- 
ernors and literary chancellors to see that it was 
obeyed." 

Dr. Hayes and Yuan Shih-kai soon split 
upon a regulation which the Governor thought 
it best to introduce, viz., " That the Chinese 
professors shall, on the first and fifteenth of each 
month, conduct their classes in reverential sacri- 
fice to the Most Holy Confucius, and to all the 
former worthies and scholars of the provinces." 
Dr. Hayes and his Christian teachers withdrew, 
and it was not long until those who professed 
Christianity were excused from this rite, while 
the Christian physicians who taught in the 



The Court and the New Education 365 

Peking Imperial University were allowed to 
dispense with the queue and wear foreign 
clothes, as being both more convenient and 
more sanitary. 

When Governor Yuan was made viceroy of 
Chihli, he requested Dr. C. D. Tenny to draw 
up and put into operation a similar schedule for 
the metropolitan province. This was done on a 
very much enlarged scale, and at present (1909) 
" the Chihli province alone has nine thousand 
schools, all of which are aiming at Western 
education ; while in the empire as a whole there 
are not less than forty thousand schools, colleges 
and universities," representing one phase of the 
educational changes that have been brought 
about in China during the last dozen years. 

The changes in the new education among 
women promise to be even more sweeping than 
those among men. Dr. Martin, expressing the 
sentiments then in vogue, said, as far back as 
1877, " that not one in ten thousand women 
could read." In 1893 I began studying the sub- 
ject, and was led at once to doubt the statement. 
The Chinese in an offhand way will agree with 
Dr. Martin. But I found that it was a Chinese 
woman who wrote the first book that was ever 
written in any language for the instruction of 
girls, and that the Chinese for many years have 
had " Four Books for Girls " corresponding to 
the "Four Books" of the old regime, and that 



366 Court Life in China 

they were printed in large editions, and have 
been read by the better class of people in almost 
every family. In every company of women that 
came to call on my wife from 1894 to 1900, there 
was at least one if not more who had read these 
books, while the Empress Dowager herself was 
a brilliant example of what a woman of the old 
regime could do. Where the desire for educa- 
tion was so great among women, that as soon as 
it became possible to do so, she launched the 
first woman's daily newspaper that was pub- 
lished anywhere in the world, with a woman as 
an editor, we may be sure that there was more 
than one in ten thousand during the old regime 
that could read. What therefore may we expect 
in this new regime where women are ready to 
sacrifice their lives rather than that the school 
which they are undertaking to establish shall be 
a failure ? 



INDEX 



Agriculture, Temple of, 337 
Alute, 39 ; relatives of, 40 
America, 30, 220 
American Bible Society, 123 
Amoor, 42 
Anhui braves, 42 
Arrow war, 29 
Art, Chinese, 84 
Art gallery, 198 
Astronomy, 240 

Audience, diplomatic ladies pre- 
pare for, 69, 96, 97 ff., 156, 

161, 165 
Audience, first, 39, 155 
Audiences, at midnight, 194 

Ball, Dyer, 288 

Beggars, 236 

Beresford, Lord Charles, 25 

Blackwood's Magazine, 52 

Board of Mines, 80 

Board of Punishments, 286 

Board of Railroads, 80 

Board of Rites, 157 

Bomb blows up train, 74 

Boxers, 54, 55, 69, 98, 144, 157, 

162, 164, 167, 172, 179, 180, 
206, 223, 234, 236 

Brass, 331 

Brick bed, 252 

Bronze, 33 1 

Brougham, 176 

Buddha, thousand armed, 196 

Buddhists, 300 

Bushell, S. W., 84 

Calisthenics, 214, 216 
Canton, 241 
Carl, Miss, 104, 198 
Carts, Chinese, 272 
Chang Chih-tung, 46, 56, 172, 
3 o6 » 3*4, 354 



Chang Hsu, Mrs., 203 

Chang Yin-huan, 44 

Chen, Mr., 152 

Chiang, General, 181 

Chien Lung, 34, 36, 121, 193 

Chien men, 190 

Chihli, Province of, 43, 345 

Chinese Government, rescue of 
French prisoners by, 25 

Chinese lady's ideal of beauty, 
229 ; not received at court, 233 

Chinese Progress, 57, 58, 1 43 

Ching, Prince, 45, 104, 147, 170, 
172, 174, 177, 205, 206, 208, 
209, 231, 306, 320 

Chin Shih (graduate of the third 
degree), 277 

Christian schools, 53 

Christian women give Bible to 
Empress Dowager, 122 

Chuang, Prince, 179, 205 

Chuang Yuan (highest type of 
graduate), 221, 277 

Chii Jen (graduate of the second 
degree), 277 

Chun, Prince, ancestry, 172 ; ap- 
pearance, 173 ; attends dedi- 
catory services, 180 ; changes 
officials, 307 ; gives luncheon, 
170 ; humour, 173; prepared 
for the regency, 178; selected 
regent, 160, 171 ; understand 
foreign affairs, 182 

Chun, Princess, 177 

Circus, Chinese, 223 

" Classic for Girls," quotations 
from, 26 f. 

" Classic for Girls," filial piety, 27 

Coal Hill, 190, 192, 196-197 

College of Inscriptions, 90 

Colquhoun. A. R., 25, 246 

Concubines, 13, 242, 248, 257, 305 



367 



3 68 



Index 



Conger, Major, 173, 181 
Conger, Mrs. E. H., 96, 104, 173, 

177, 200 
Conservatives, 54, 55, 74, 131, 

145, 159, 172, 176 
Constitution for China, 73 
Coup d'etat, 204 
Court ladies, 100 
Court painters, 89 
Curio street, Liu Li Chang, 92 
Curriculum of girls' schools, 217 

Dane shopkeeper, 115, 116 
Denby, Colonel, 25, 36, 44, 130, 

Dining habits, 259 
Diphtheria, 281 

" Do not know my own chil- 
dren," 258 
Dowager Princess, 295, 298 
Dress, and dressing, 252 ff. 
Duke Kuei, 201 

Duke Tse, with commission, 77, 
207 

Eclipse, 153 

Edicts, list of by Kuang Hsu, 
137 ff. 

Embroidery, 217, 251 

Empress Dowager, where born, 
9 ; father's name, 9 ; don't 
talk about, 10; brothers and 
sisters of, 10 ; when born, 10 ; 
appearance of, 8 ; enjoys the- 
atricals, 11; name (Miss 
Chao), registered, 11-12; se- 
lected as concubine, 14-27 ; 
character of, 18, 33, 36, 52, 97 ; 
attitude towards Boxers ac- 
counted for, 22 ; first impres- 
sions of the foreigner, 24 ; dis- 
position to learn, 27 ; beheads 
six reformers, 60 ; Western, 
28 ; Eastern, 28 ; exile at 
Jehol, 31 ; two phases in life 
of, 3 1 ; policy of, 34, 48 ; 
realization of her duty, 36 ; 
characteristics of, 36, 194 ff., 
209 ; ability to choose states- 



men, 36, 146 ; regent, 37 ; not 
satisfied, 37 ; adopts Prince 
Kung's daughter, 38 ; plans 
for succession, 39 ; watches 
officials, 43, 45, 46 ; plays one 
party against another, 48 ; 
again called to throne, 53; is- 
sues secret edict, 61 ; issues 
unwise edicts, 314; ready to 
go to war, 64 ; convert to the 
policy of progress, 68; began 
reforms, 72 ; photographs of, 
73; painting teacher of, 85, 
86 ; as an artist, 86 ff. ; as 
Goddess of Mercy, 90, 91 ; 
asks bowl of, 1 00 ; apartments 
of, 192 ; private audiences of, 
102 ; death of, 343 ff. ; inquires 
about education of girls, 102 ; 
issues edict commending fe- 
male education, 103 ; her 
name, 344; inquires about 
church, 103 ; superstitions of, 
104, 105; appearance of, 107 ; 
no double in history, 109 ; sat 
behind him holding reins, 142 ; 
not reactionary, 144 ; calls 
meeting of princes, 161, 162, 
163; arranges marriages, 176; 
subscribes to Union Medical 
College, 181 
England, 30, 53, 133, 141, 182 
Eunuch, Li Lien-ying, 92 
Eunuchs, 97, 123, 124, 125, 154, 
166, 205, 213, 231, 249, 252, 
271, 305 

Fairs, 330 

Famine relief, 222 

Fast days, 268 

Father's name, will not speak, 

277 
Feet, bound, 230 
Filial piety, " Classic for Girls," 27 
Food, Chinese, 218 
Foot-binding, 105 
Forbidden City, 42, 186, 187 ff. 
Foreign devil, 24 
Foreign office, 37, 60 



Index 



3 6 9 



" Four Books for Girls," 365 
France, 30, 53, 133, 141, 175, 
182 

French prisoners, 25 
Fruit in Peking, 258 
Funeral ceremonies, 289 ff. 
Furs, 331 

Garden, 191, 262 

German Emperor, 175 

German missionaries, 55 

Germany, 53, 133, 175, 182, 356 

Giles, Prof., 37, 270 

" Girls, Primer for," 228 

Gladstone photographed with Li 

Hung-chang, 45 
God, slave girl prayed only to, 

240 
" Golden Lilies," 230 
Gorst, Harold, 26 
Gospel, power of the, 340^ 
Grand council, 71 
Great Britain and opium, 80 
Great pure dynasty, 34 

Hair, combing of the, 254 
Hang Chou, lady of, 223 
Hanlin (graduate of the fourth 

degree), 277 
Hart, Sir Robert, 48, 181, 248 
Hayes, W. M., 364 
Headland, Mrs., 85, 86, 87, 91, 

96, 157, 161, 165, 176, 202, 

206, 213, 229, 243, 251, 271 
Heaven, eastern, 299 
Henry, Prince, 155 
Holcomb, Chester, 25, 304 
Home, a Chinese, 247 
Hongkong, 141 
Hopkins, Dr., 91, 180, 18 1 
Hsian, 118, 165, 188, 239 
Hsien Feng, Emperor, 14, 37, 

142, 172, 201, 348; concubine 

of, 14; flees from British, 31 ; 

died at Jehol, 31 
Hsiu Tsai (graduate of the first 

degree), 277 
Hsu Ching-cheng, 164 



Hsu, the Misses, 276 

Hu, Governor, 173, 174, 181 

Ills of Chinese ladies, 271 
Imperial College, 132 
Imperial present, 265 
Imperial Princess, 205, 206 
Imperial temples, 196 
Imperial University, 139, 155 
Incense-burners, 331 
Intrigue, palace, 41 
Italy, 182 

Japan, 135, 140, 143, 152, 182 

Japanese, 188, 215, 216, 220 

Jehol, 31 

Jewelry, 332 

Johnston, Charles, 113 

Johnston, R. R, 328 

Jung, Lady, 176 

Jung Lu, 47, 54, 55, 59, 135, 

146, 311 
Jupiter and his moons, 240 
Ju yi (a wedding present), 251, 

262 

Ka-la-chin, Princess, 218 

Kang Hsi, 34, 193 

Kang Kuang-jen, 60, 157 

Kang Yi, 55 

Kang Yu-wei, 54, 59, 60, 134, 
135, 148, 153, 157, 204, 309 

Kettler, Baron von, 174, 178, 
179, 180, 181 

Kiaochou, 141 

Kuan, Mr., 89, 90 

Kuang-chou-wan, 141 

Kuang Hsu, 42, 54, 74, 151 ; 
loses four ports, 53 ; deposed, 
53 ; issues edict, 56 ; standing 
to left of Dowager, 71 ; be- 
trothal of, 107 ; appearance of, 
1 1.2, 167; cbosen emperor, 
114; fondness for toys, 115, 
131 ; not an ideal child, 117; 
apartments of, 118; fondness 
for railroad telegraph, etc., 
119, 120; face turned to the 
future, 121, 122; buys Bible, 



37° 



Index 



123 ; studies Gospel of Luke, 
123 ; issues edict favouring 
Christianity, 125, 130; studies 
English, 1 26 ; buys foreign 
books, 127, 133; tries to ride 
bicycle, 128; as a man, 131 ; 
not an imbecile, 131; list of 
edicts issued by, 137 ff. ; selec- 
tion of a successor, 159; op- 
poses Boxers, 163; how 
guarded, 167 ; dines with Em- 
press Dowager, 168; kicks off 
shoe at Yehonala, 202 ; hates 
Yuan Shih-kai, 316; com- 
plains of his hard lot, 322; 
could not have been put to 
death by any one man, 323 
Kuei Chun, 56 

Kuei Fei (first concubine), 27 
Kung, Prince, 31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 
41, 45, 135, 205 

Lady Yuan, 208 

Lamas, 300, 339 

Launches, steam, 121 

Liang Chi-tsao, 60 

Liang Tung-yen, 170 

Li Han-chang, 282 

Li Hung-chang, 41, 42, 43, 145, 
172, 175, 278, 280, 282, 306; 
sent to Japan, 44 ; sent to Rus- 
sia, 44 ; " Bismarck of the 
East," 45 ; invited to Summer 
Palace, 45 ; degraded, 45 j 
Viceroy of Kuangtung, 56 

Li Lien-ying, 92, 168 

Li Ping-heng, 55 

Li Po, 230 

Literati, 304 

Liu Hsin, 60 

Liu Kuang-ti, 60 

Liu Kun-yi, 46, 56, 314 

Liu Li Chang, curio street, 92 

Lotus Lake, 196 

Manchu lady's ideal of beauty, 

229 
Manchu and Chinese ladies do 

not associate, 231 



Manchu uses cosmetics freely, 

254 

Manners and customs of the Chi- 
nese, 246 

Map on fan, 175 

Marriages, students' method, 250 

Marry a princess, no prince can, 
218 

Martin, W. A. P., 68, 156, 360, 

36S 

Meats in Peking, 259 

Medicine, 282, 283 

Memorial arch, to von Ketfler, 
179 

Men and their clothing, 263 

Miao, Lady, 85, 86, 87, 88, 93 

Missionary educational institu- 
tions, 132 

Mongolian, 218, 220, 221 

Month old feast, 266 

Moore, Bishop, 181 

Mother-in-law, 257, 273 

Mourning rites, 288 

Nanking, address of Tuan Fang 

at, 76 
Nanking University, 76 
Na Tung, 179, 181 
Newspaper, Woman's Daily, 225 
New Testament, 122 
New York, 252 

Occupation of Chinese ladies, 

2S 1 

Opium reform of Empress Dow- 
ager, 78 

Opium War, 22 

Opium (Yang Yen), 23 

Ore, stores of, 219 

Painting teacher, of Empress 

Dowager, 85 
Palace, party in the, 41 
Pawned trousers of child, 276 
Peking, 189 ; description of, 189, 

328 ; city of the court, 329 
Peking University, 59, 145 
Peter the Great, 134 
Philadelphia, 258 



Index 



371 



Phonograph, 120 

Physicians, 283, 284, 345 

Porcelain, 331, 333 

Port Arthur, 141 

Portrait of Empress Dowager, 104 

Precious stones, 332 

Priests, 295 

Princesses, 71 ; Princess Shun, 
85, 200, 207, 208 ; Princess Pu 
Lun, 182; Princess Tsai Chen, 
208 ; fourth Princess, 209 ; 
Princess Su, 213 

Private audiences, 102 

Progressives, 55 

Prospect Hill, 197 

Protocol, 165 

Pu I, 160, 171, 346 

Pu Lun, 182, 306 

Pu Lun, Princess, 182 

Questions for examination, 363 
Queue, abolition of, 143 ; a Manchu 
style, 232 

Reform club, 133, 134 

Reform really due to Emperor, 72 

Reformers, 55 

Reformers, six beheaded, 54, 60 

Regency, after death of Hsien 

Feng, 31 
Registration, objections to, 12 
Roosevelt, President, 73 
Russia, S3, 133, 141 
Russia invited to join England in 

war, 30 

Saint James, Court of, 248 
Samuel, little, 267 
Saratoga trunk, 272 
Schools, 214, 365 
Scidmore, Elizah Ruhamah, 8 
Sealed memorials, 144 
Secret edict, 61 
Sedan chair, 259 ff. 
Seventh Prince, married to Em- 
press Dowager's sister, 39, 201 
Shakespeare, 194 
Shanghai, 120 
Shansi, 56 



Shantung, 56 

Shoes for Empress Dowager, 274 

Shun, Princess, 85, 200, 207, 208 

Silkworm, 197 

Sister of Empress Dowager mar- 
ried to Seventh Prince, 39 

Sisters-in-law, 250, 252 

Slave girl saved by mistress, 
234 ff. 

Smith, Arthur H., 33, 157 

Social life, 247 

Soldiers, paper, 20 ; stories about, 
21 

Spirit doctors, 284 

St. Louis Exposition, 220 

Su, Dowager Princess, 289 ff. 

Su, Prince, 162, 163, 170, 214, 
218, 219, 221, 231, 290, 293, 
298, 306 

Suicide, 224, 280 

Summer Palace, 45, 121, 144, 
146, 147 

Sun Chia-nai, 360 

Sunday, 217 

Table decorations, 98 

Taft, Marcus L., 126 

Tai-ping Rebellion, 19 

Tai-ping, stories of, 20-21 

Talienwan, 141 

" Talking in the sleeve," 333 

Tan Sze-tung, 60 

Taoists, 300 

Tao Kuang, 173, 177 

Tartar City, 330 

Tea drinking, 261 

Telescope, 240 

Temple of Heaven, 151, 334 

Temples of Agriculture, 337 ; of 

the Sun, 338 ; of the Moon, 338 ; 

of the Earth, 338 ; Lama, 338 ; 

Confucian, 338, 339 
Tenny, C. D., 317, 365 
Testament, New, sent to Empress 

Dowager, 355 
Theatre, 168, 263, 264 
Third Princess, 221, 223 
Tourists, 197 
Townley, Lady Susan, 342 



37 2 



Index 



Train provided for Empress, 74 
Travelling, methods of, in Peking, 

259 ff. 
Tsai Chen, 170, 208 
Tsai Feng (Prince Chiin), 160 
Tsai Tien (see KuangHsii), 1 14, 

Tse, Duke, 77, 207 

Tuan Fang, Governor of Shensi, 
56; head of commission, 74, 
75 ; address at Waldorf-As- 
toria, 76 ; address at Nanking 
University, 76 

Tuan, Prince, 48, 161, 162 ; ap- 
pointed member of foreign of- 
fice, 48 ; selection of his son as 
emperor, 159 ; determination 
to murder Von Kettler, 179 

Tu Fu, 270 

Tung Chih, 32,34, 113, 160, 201 ; 
married, 39 ; death of, 40, 41, 
"3 

Uncle, lady flees to, 239 
University, Peking Imperial, 359 

Vegetable food, 267 
Vinegar, eat, 249 
Visit the Forbidden City, 188 
Vos, Mr. 198 

Waist-binding, 106 
Waldorf-Astoria, 75 
Wang Chao, 143, 157 
Wang Wen-shao, 46 
Washington, 252, 332 
Wei-hai-wei, 141 



Western education, 22« 
White peril, 358 
Widows, 254 

Wildman, Rounsevclle, 150 
Williams, S. Wells, 186 
Woman's Daily Newspaper, 225 
Women, their position, 330 
Wu men, 189 
Wu-Sung Railroad, 120 

Yang Jut, 60 

Yang Shen-hsin, 60 

Yehonala, 77, 201, 202, 207 

Yin-ma, 20 

Yin- Yang, 345 

Yuan Chang, 164 

" Yuan Fan," 18 

Yuan, Lady, 208 

Yuan Shih-kai, 46, 146, 172; 
placed in charge of army, 47, 
7.5 ; ordered to imprison Em- 
press Dowager, 47 ; Governor 
of Shantung, 56, 312, 315 ; 
birthplace, 307 ; pupil of Li 
Hung-chang, 308; called an 
opportunist, 310; summoned 
to Peking, 311 ; tests Boxer 
leaders, 312; disobeys Em- 
press Dowager's edicts, 314; 
mother dies, 315 ; Yellow 
Jacket received, 317; made 
Viceroy of Chihli, 317 ; estab- 
lishes public school system, 
318 ; could not have put Kuang 
Hsu to death, 323 

Yu Hsien, 55, 56 

Yii, Mr., court photographer, 92 



